A friend of mine lost his job as a result of COVID-19-related cutbacks and lost his employer-based health insurance along with it.

His story is not unique — more than 20 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last few weeks, most losing coverage along the way.

My friend, a Bernie Sanders supporter, added that this was why society needed to move away from employer-based coverage. He meant it as proof of the failures of capitalism and the need for a socialist, government-run healthcare system.

As he was too young for the Obamacare debate from years ago, he wasn’t aware that capitalists have also argued for portable plans that followed the individual.

“An alternative approach would be to make it easier for people to buy insurance that isn’t tied to their employment,” wrote Ramesh Ponnuru in The New York Times in 2009. “The existing tax break for employer-provided insurance could be replaced with a tax credit that applies to insurance purchased either inside or outside the workplace.”

Too often people think of capitalism as synonymous with corporate greed; they don’t see it as a large system of which they are a part that gives them the freedom to choose and succeed.

As Axios reported recently, COVID-19 will likely be a defining moment for Gen Zers, as 9/11 was for my generation. The loss of those crucial first job opportunities, depressed wages and the horror of watching their parents become unemployed and lose health coverage in the middle of a pandemic will likely make the socialist policies espoused by Sanders even more popular among younger Americans.

They are coming up in a world of crushing student debt, inadequate housing options, high cost of living, ridiculously expensive health care and so on. Sanders has sold them on the idea that the government can fix all these problems just by soaking the rich (even though that hasn’t worked in California).

By contrast, a capitalist would point to government policies that drive the exploding cost of tuition and would instead promote lower-cost alternatives to pricey private institutions, including trade schools and community colleges. A capitalist would argue that California’s bad housing policies prevent new housing units from being built.

Capitalist solutions require effort and trust in certain economic truths and are not quick fixes, so of course a government-run solution sounds appealing, because it’s sold with the fantasy that it’s more efficient and will pay for itself — only it’s not and it doesn’t.

Government has a role in society. Among other things, it provides security, law and order and assistance to those in need. The pricey government response to COVID-19 has been appropriate, yet its limitations are obvious.

Why can’t our solutions be consolidated in government? We are about to find out when budgets across the country are slashed as the result of diminished tax revenue.

Capitalism has been the greatest creator of wealth the world has ever known. Until fairly recently in human history, most of the world lived in poverty in abhorrent conditions. Certainly, many Americans live in unacceptable conditions today, but if you think it’s worse than life in the 1800s, you are mistaken.

The spread of capitalism and democracy throughout the world has led to relative global stability.

“In a free market, money corrodes caste and class and lubricates social interaction,” writes author Jonah Goldberg. “Trade builds trust and encourages strangers to see each other as equals in a transaction.”

But the blame for capitalism’s declining popularity falls squarely on the shoulders of capitalists who failed to defend it. The 2008 financial crisis, with its corporate greed, government bailouts and lack of accountability, all on the backs of taxpayers and consumers, dragged capitalism’s name through the mud.

2008 proved the old adage that a few bad apples could spoil a bunch. For years there was an agreement in society that if the elites played by the rules and cared about the people, they could “have their mansions,” Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote.

“But when you begin to perceive that the great and mighty are not necessarily on your side, when they show no particular sense of responsibility to their fellow citizens, all bets are off,” Noonan wrote.

I could go on about all the inventions and discoveries and societal advancements that came from capitalism, and certainly someone could come back with achievements of government researchers.

But capitalism to me is about the individual — the American story of freedom, hard work, redemption and countless opportunities.

I’m a high school dropout. Through a series of extremely poor choices in my teens and early 20s, I became unemployable, homeless and hopeless. Eventually, I sought help, sobered up and started the slow journey to where I am today.

I went to community college and then graduated from a public, four-year institution. I moved a lot, following opportunities. I dreamed of writing and became a journalist, through which I got a front-row seat to history, meeting many interesting people along the way.

I’ve suffered setbacks and benefitted from the help of many people (thank you!), including the government at times. But my experience with government aid — food stamps, general relief, student loans and grants and government-subsidized schools — prove to me that the government’s role is to bolster the free market, not build a bigger safety net with the free market’s largesse.

I’m not saying capitalism doesn’t have its downsides; every system does. But everything in my life came from the status quo — a free-market, capitalist system where I got to work hard and make my own choices.

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Proposition 15 would be terrible for California: Letters “By definition, it’s not perfect,” says Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant and fellow capitalist. “It’s designed to reflect reality and recognizes certain laws, like supply and demand.”

“You don’t have to like the law of gravity, but you have to deal with it every day regardless,” Madrid adds.

If there are people being left behind, we need to pick them up. But government solutions are limited — the free market’s promise is endless.

In case you were wondering, my friend sent his resume around and found a new job, with health insurance. Capitalism worked again.

Matt Fleming is a member of the Southern California News Group’s editorial board. Follow him on Twitter: @FlemingWords