Last night I witnessed a miracle. I was sitting on my couch and a little electronic rectangular device laying next to me began to make noise and shake. What was this sorcery? It was my cell phone. An object used to transmit data and information from one area to another through invisible radio waves.
What was being transmitted? Well, millions of bits of information was sent from London England by my good friend Bill. He too has one of these magical devices. He wrote me a message by tapping on a screen with his fingers. After composing the message he had it zapped to my phone. It traveled thousands of miles in an instant. Much faster than he could ever walk, run, or fly the message to me. It said:
“Alright bruv, I got my new iPhone 4S now so I’m presuming this text is free
, what have you been up to son?”
Imagine that, I was now conversing across the globe with a friend I have never even shared a room with! All of this made possible by capitalistic pursuit and market demand. Could you imagine what would happen if the government and state controlled all means of production — you know, a Socialist society? Do you really think without profit based incentive there would be a product half, or half of a half as good as this magical iPhone?
And forgetting that — we were talking for “free” (I recognize subscriber fees and the cost of electric to charge the phone but for argument’s sake it was free). That’s right, no need for SMS charges. The grand wizard named Steve Jobs has bestowed upon us a magical machine that made communication possible.
People all across the planet communicate like this everyday, with all different types of miracle boxes called cellular phones. All because of capitalism makes it possible. All because of a market demand by consumers and entrepreneurs’ ability to meet said demand for a profit. These are modern-day miracles. Not only that — because of capitalism, everyday this magic is cheaper and cheaper to own! Not because government gets involved but because entrepreneurs find cheaper means of production while increasing performance and availability. Need proof — look at the price of data storage over the years.
Lesson: if you feel capitalism is a problem then you are mistaken. Your gripe is with government and big business manipulating you. This is called Corporatism and it is dangerous to mix the two.
Capitalism drives innovation and without it we would all be standing in line for our government food rations like they did in Soviet Russia. We would not be sitting on our couches talking with friends across a vast ocean named the Atlantic, on a device not much bigger than a deck of playing cards.
Thank you Capitalism!
