I will put the proposition that capitalism is democracy.
Adherents of capitalism usually explain capitalism in that if person A or company A has product X, another person or company can come out with product Z. If product Z tastes better, or is cheaper, or looks better, or functions more efficiently, then, for the most part, people will choose product Z. This is what happened with the BlackBerry and Apple’s cellphone.
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However, what I want to emphasize is that capitalism gives you more choices, depending on individual persons’ tastes. I was informed by Ukrainian friends that oftentimes a grocery store in the Soviet Union often sold only pickles and pigs’ feet to consumers. However, a variety could be found in the semiofficial black market, where one could buy potatoes, turnips, etc. grown by individuals for profit.
Recently, we had tens of thousands of foreigners come to the united states for FIFA’s World Cup competition. Many went to grocery stores and were floored not just by the abundance, but also by the variety of foods.
Let us take the case of cereals. In my grocery store, there are Frosted Flakes, Basic Four, Muslix, Honey Oats, Corn Flakes, Captain Crunch, and so on and so on. In other words, if a person does not want fruit with his breakfast cereal, there is just cereal. If he wants sugar or honey already in the cereal, it is available. If he wants oat cereal, there is that available. If I want a combination of cereals, there is that. If one wants a small portion and not a big one, there are small containers for sale, but if one wants a family-size container, there is that available. If I want a cereal with strawberries mixed in but not raisins, there is that, and so on and so on.
And then we come to prices. Each cereal will have different prices depending on what it contains or does not contain, and in the competition.
And what applies to cereal applies to coffee, soups, canned meats, fruits, vegetables, etc.
The point is that capitalism, in the case of breakfast cereals, caters to individual tastes and is, therefore, democratic.
Communist countries do not. Neither do monopolies. Both of those represent dictatorships.
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There is another aspect of capitalism that is democratic: making abundance common. Nowadays, we take the abundance of goods for granted. My own house is festooned with objects, both decorative and utilitarian, so much so that at times it feels cluttered. Mind you, they are all of very good quality.
I have been to reconstructions of homes from the 1800s, and one of the things that always struck me was the scarcity of objects. The homes were Spartan. Everything was strictly utilitarian. Personal items, which were important to the people, were few and of poor quality. Only rich families had an abundance of objects of good quality in nice homes.
The Industrial Revolution — AKA capitalism on steroids — which really took off in the late 1800s, created compound economic growth and, thereby, compound economic wealth all around. Items became easier and, therefore, cheaper to make and, therefore, more abundant. In reconstructions of homes throughout the 1800s and 1900s, one can see the increased difference; there are more objects, and they are of better quality than each previous generation.
In 1964, I went to the World’s Fair in New Jersey. One of the exhibits was, I believe, by Westinghouse. It had circular moving seating, revolving around different partitioned stages. Each stage represented a different decade. The stages had identical animatronics of a family discussing their home at that period of time, and the audience could see how each household item, particularly the kitchen, had improved through the ages. Without the exhibit saying so, it was due to capitalism — i.e., Westinghouse.
Thanks to capitalism, life has steadily improved for everyone.
Remember that for the most part of history, the majority of humans lived in near poverty. Capitalism changed that.
So when some individual starts spouting socialist slogans, explain to him stand.
Armando Simón is a retired psychologist and historian, author of When Evolution Stops and The Transgender Cult: Psychology, Politics, Religion and the Media.
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Image: JSMed via Pixabay, Pixabay License.