In my experienece, most people have little to no understanding of capitalism. They think it encourages greed, and they are completely wrong in that belief. Unfortunately, it’s not just critics of capitalism that think this – I’ve met many defenders of capitalism who have the attitude that greed is good. Greedy people are assholes, and if the world were rid of them, it’d be a lovely place. I think it’s absurd to even debate that. Unfortunately, many defenders of free markets try to do just that. They don’t really understand why the thing they’re defending is worth defending; they just know that the alternative is worse. The fact that many defenders of capitalism try to defend greed probably causes many intelligent, well meaning people to become socialists. This reaction, is, of course, based upon a logical fallacy – a poor argument in support of an idea says nothing about whether the idea itself is poor. The principles underlying free-market capitalism aren’t based upon the idea that greedy people are good, they’re based upon the idea that greedy people are greedy.
Consider a simple story. I frequently start political or philsophical discussions over meals, I suppose because I enjoy harangueing people with my ideas, and I usually eat in some sort of group if I can. Suppose we are eating at a fast food restaurant, and we have finished our meal. Most fast food places provide garabge cans, and bins for used trays. When customers finish eating, they usually take their trays, empty them in the trash, and stack them in the bins. Some people just leave their trash at the table. In any case, the restaurant will pay people to clean up the restaurant, to make sure it looks nice. A nice restaurant is more enjoyable for everybody than a dirty restaurant. The owners of restaurant pay people to clean it up because they want to entice customers into their restaurant. They are motivated by greed. Their greed, coupled with the mechanism of capitalism, ensures that there will be somebody to clean up the mess and that it will get cleaned up.
The people who leave their food on the table are also greedy. Are they making the world better through their greed? No, not at all. They’re leaving their crap for other people to clean up. Does capitalism encourage this? No. It’s not designed to, either. The reason I think capitalism is a great idea is that it ensures that people who are greedy – the restaurant owners – will still be encouraged to do things that benefit others – like cleaning up the mess left by other lazy people. My support for capitalism certainly doesn’t mean I think that greed is a good thing, or that the world would be better if there were more greedy people in it. It just means that I recognize the reality of the world, that it is full of people who are greedy, and that greed is an extremely reliable motive.
There’s a lot more to my support of capitalism – particularly, because of the freedom in a capitalist system. Even if planned economies were more efficient and lead to better standards of living, I wouldn’t want to live in one, because I value my freedom above all else. Fortunately for me, and my fellow capitalists, planned economies are lousy, and despite the warnings of leftist academics in the past, the planned economies around the world have stagnated and collapsed, unable to deliver upon promises made, while the more free markets have grown and prospered.