Yes, Mr. President: Capitalism Is Better

During his recent trip to Argentina, President Barack Obama told a group of young people, "I think for your generation, you should be practical and just choose from what works. You don't have to worry about whether it neatly fits into socialist [or communist] theory or capitalist theory – you should just decide what works[.]" He followed up this inanity by saying health care, life expectancy, and education are very good in (Communist) Cuba. He noted, "But you drive around Havana and you say this economy is not working. It looks like it did in the 1950s." (He did not use words like "impoverished" and "squalid" to describe what he saw.) So let's say one tells people that instead of distinguishing between being a good, law-abiding citizen and being a criminal – say, a bank robber – we just look at the practical side, the "results," of the two modes of living. Males in jail for ten or more years for bank robbery can bench-press much heavier barbells than males of the same age who have not been incarcerated for a similar period of time. Similarly, males incarcerated for bank robbery have a much lower incidence of alcoholism than do males of the same age who live outside the penitentiary. On the other hand, income levels of males outside the walls of the prison are on average much higher than those on the inside. Keeping these distinctions in mind, there are practical pros and cons to justify both conditions of life, and the emphasis on good citizenship as a desideratum as opposed to criminal behavior is just so much fluff.

One can see how Obama's "pragmatism" is both laughable and pathetic. Listen to the dichotomous thinking that our dear president wants to discourage. There is no significant difference between the sanctity of property ownership and a society where there is no ownership (thus no need for contracts). There is no significant difference between a society where the government is the only employer and a society where competing companies hire people. There is no significant difference between a society where there are infinite regulations that discourage entrepreneurship and a society where entrepreneurship is encouraged. There is no significant difference between a country that has a vast network of private banking with access to funds competing for venture capital and a country where all the banks are owned and controlled by the government. There is nothing to distinguish as superior countries where invention is incentivized by copyright laws that give proprietary rights to those who develop new medicines and other inventions for the common benefit. There is nothing to distinguish as superior a country where many workers can quit their jobs and look for a better paying job or start their own business without "permission" from the government. There is no relevant difference where real estate is advertised, and people can move about from place to place, choosing their own residences within the practical parameters of their taste in environment and price limitations. There is no relevant difference in being in a country where you can choose your own doctor (this freedom is being eroded under Obamacare) and get second opinions from practitioners of your choosing. In short, there is no significant or relevant difference between economic freedom and economic bondage. Obama touts the wonderful health care and life expectancy of Cubans. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), our average life expectancy is 79, and theirs is 78. If that one year translates into one more year of work for each person, then that is 320 million work years per year in the U.S., a monumental difference in terms of quality of life for those living in the USA versus Cuba. Obama touts Cuban health care as outstanding. Is there even one person who would fly from the USA to Cuba for medical treatment? But we can be certain that many would fly to the USA from Cuba if they had the chance and needed, say, cancer treatment or even treatment for allergies. Similarly, regarding education, how many Americans would choose to attend the University of Havana rather than go to any state university in the USA? Yet we can be certain that if given the choice, so many Cubans would opt to attend one of our universities rather than the University of Havana. So let us understand now and forever that President Obama's Argentine reasoning is puerile at best. We do everything better than Cuba. Our two countries are non-comparable. Capitalism is the source of all real and lasting prosperity, while communism is a failed concept despite some intellectual adherents like our president who are, almost congenitally, unable to admit the dismal failures of that system. Notwithstanding the president's disclaimer, we can readily see that our country's strength has been diluted by too much socialism. We must tame the culture of bureaucracy; of huge governmental programs; of over-regulation; of excessive taxation; of "give me, give me"; and of impossible debt used to fund our so-called mixed economy.