Socialism Or Enabled Capitalism

Blog Post

The GOP talks about our economy as if we had pure capitalism and a non-free market solution to anything is heresy. The problem with their ideal is that pure capitalism does not create the necessary conditions for most businesses to exist.

Most companies do not exist without healthy and educated employees, without infrastructure, without research, without safe communities, without community development, or without safety nets. These necessary conditions are not paid for individually by businesses but are paid for collectively with our citizens through our local, state, and federal governments. These necessary conditions are our Basic Public Investments (BPIs).

A Pure Free Market (PFM), the GOP’s utopia, would only have people that can afford health care to have it and just have people that could afford education (of any level) to have it. A PFM has no BPIs and therefore most of our businesses today would not exist.

In 3rd world countries, without the massive investments in the BPIs, generally from two-thirds to three-quarters of their populations are in poverty. Yes, there are “the few” that do prosper, but in general, the whole economy is not vibrant, and most people live in some level of poverty.

By collectively paying for our BPIs, we create the necessary conditions for many more businesses to exist and prosper. After WWII we significantly expanded investments in our BPIs, and it paid off huge for our citizens, businesses, and economy.

What some people are now calling socialism like health-care for all, low cost or free higher education, and the Green-New-Deal, I call “Enabled Capitalism” to reach a whole new level of prosperity the world has never seen.

Instead of focusing on labels like Capitalism or Socialism, let’s focus on creating the necessary conditions for our people to thrive and our businesses to exist and prosper. Our BPIs are we-the-people investing in America and Americans, and we are great investments!

by Karl Smith

FULL ARTICLE: Socialism Or Enabled Capitalism