Capitalism Defines Success

This article is brought to you by Capitalism.

I have a platform to promote Capitalism, and you have a platform to whine about Capitalism, because of Capitalism. My MacBook, your iPhone, the Internet, Medium, Facebook, and Twitter — all thanks to Capitalism.

I recently read a quote by R. Buckminster Fuller that caught my attention. To paraphrase, he claims that we live in a world where just 1/10,000 people can innovate and provide for the other 9,999. I don’t disagree with his statement; but his implied premise is flawed. Who decides who gets the “honor” of being that 1? What incentive, what motivation, does anyone have for becoming that 1? What entitles the other 9,999 to a work-free life?

Your comforts and your leisures are what draw you toward Socialism and other similar systems. You don’t want to work hard, because you’d rather stay at home and watch Netflix. Your ideal life is to eat for free and play Call of Duty for free using your free Internet inside your free house. The problem is that your food, your games, your services, and your dwellings were all built on Capitalism. Without Capitalism, in a magical society where everything is free and nobody works, you would be eating raw potatoes and living in a straw hut; the Internet, television, video games — never existed. How can anyone reject the system that gave them the comforts and leisures they so long for?

You’re sitting there sipping your coffee at your local Starbucks. You think it’s delicious, you think it’s the best. But how did it ever become one of the top coffee chains? No government tasked Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker, and Zev Siegl to make Starbucks. What incentive would a government even have at tasking anyone with making Starbucks? What gain would Starbucks even bring to a government? You want coffee in your magical society where everything is free? If you’re lucky and you petition your government to provide it, you’d get plain, watery coffee once per day, and you’d only get 25ml of milk and 5g of sugar to put in it — just like everyone else. Is that what you really want?

You claim the 1% aren’t paying their fair share. Do you even understand that the 1% run the economy — the ever-growing, rapidly-evolving, massively-innovative economy? The 1% have already contributed their fair share. You’re using your iPhone to read this article. The 1% sold that to you at a fair price, and then they paid their employees, and their manufacturers, and even their taxes. They are the 1% because they worked so much harder than you to get where they are. They risked everything, they put themselves out there, and they devoted their lives to bring you that iPhone. Is that not fair? What incentive, what motivation, do the 1% have at delivering you yet another iPhone next year if you’re going to make the government take away everything they worked for—everything they earned? That is the thanks you give to Tim Cook, all his employees, all his engineers, and all his designers? How do you have the gall?

Capitalism is the fair system. Society decides who becomes successful, so convince them that you are! Fight your way! Work hard! Invent! Innovate! Engineer! Architect! Do something useful! When you get your job at McDonald’s, in a call center, in a sales office, don’t stop there! Your journey only begins at minimum wage. Use that money to put yourself through college, go to technical school, take online classes. Do you think anyone was ever successful by sitting there doing nothing?

Why should you work less and get more? What entitles you to such a backwards system? Capitalism and Socialism cannot live together. And if you still don’t like Capitalism, move to China, North Korea, anywhere but here. I don’t need you and your worthless whining to get in the way of my own success. I am going to be part of the 1% some day because of Capitalism. I will fight my way, work hard, invent, innovate, engineer, and architect every day, every moment.

I will earn my place at the top of society. And to the opposer of Capitalism, know yours — at the bottom.