The Essential Capitalism

IN COMMON UNDERSTANDING, the capitalist system means the profit system. To bring sense into the discussion, we must clarify the concept of profit by distinguishing between profit and paper profit. A paper profit is a dream or forecast of power to enjoy wealth. Actual enjoyment or use of wealth is the only realized profit. "Production for use" is but another way of saying production for profit. The profit system is therefore the use system, with which no one can quarrel. Capitalism is the system of guaranteeing use or profit by private ownership, and since there is no other way of gaining such security, there is no fault to be found with the capitalist system when clearly understood. The desire for use or profit is natural, ownership as a means of assuring it is natural, and free money as a means of conveying and acquiring ownership makes the third of a natural and wholesome trinity. The effect of the valun upon the capitalist system will be to permit capitalism to be its natural self and to become known for what it really is, namely, the cultural developer of man through its facilitating the first and grandest law of nature, the law of selfishness. The most cooperative, the most social and the most elevating principle of life is selfishness, and capitalism is its handmaid. The impulse of acquisition, which is the driving force in enrichment, brings discontent through disappointment, but never through realization. Capitalism is never criticized when it works. Only its miscarriages bring grief and bitterness. These disappointments have developed the queer logic of collectivism, which argues that since capitalism has not worked fairly for all, it should not work for any. The collectivists also overlook the fact that capitalism has not worked fairly because of the interference of collectivism. The sufferer from the biased operation of capitalism is the victim of collectivism without knowing it. The political money pretense and all political intervention in personal enterprise are collectivist schemes. True capitalism seeks and permits no political interference; its task is the organization of society on a purely economic basis with complete liberty of action therein assured to every individual. Capitalism is life itself. There is no starting point in evolution beyond the impulse to live——the law of self preservation——and right there capitalism starts. Self preservation implies self advancement, and thus all life follows a consistent capitalistic line that is unalterable. Despite the handicaps of collectivism, therefore, capitalism functions because there is no other system that will function at all. The capitalist system has been pushing the world along for several billions of years. He who would abolish it must start a new universe on a new principle.