Capitalism, A victim to the pragmatic age. By Jason Knavel

For centuries, the battle for Capitalism has been in a flux of social, political, and practical contention. Manny raise questions like, Is Capitalism still practical? Does it work? Does it serve the public’s best interest? Throughout history the vast majority of individuals have pursued the answers to these questions by focusing solely on the correlation between Capitalism and its effect towards the “public good.” From Glen Beck’s programs and the propositions from conservatives; to economists ranging from Adam Smith to Thomas Sowell; they all engage in a struggle aiming to prove that the overall practicality of Capitalism gives promise to greater prosperity and a better society.
Today, it is generally concluded that Capitalism, has positive and prosperous results towards the good of the public, but sadly this seems to be Capitalism’s only defense.

With practicality as the only standard of value, Capitalists today are either inadvertently or purposely proclaiming that free markets are virtuous only if they assume the duty of upholding the “public good.” One example is the idea that private property is simply a trusteeship for the benefit of society, or that property rights ought to be protected, unless of course there is a national emergency of essential need. These ideas however, represent a massive betrayal to Capitalism’s own principles.

Because the right to life is the source of all other rights, for without life no other rights would exist. And because a man cannot survive by wishes or by physical movements alone; one must rely on his mind and his work in order to survive i.e. man must support his own life through the product of his own effort. Ergo, if man cannot dispose of the product of his effort as he pleases, he cannot dispose of his life. Therefore, without property rights, no other rights can be practiced. (Rand 18) By granting validity to the claim that free markets i.e. private property, exist for the publics good, one therefore grants the public permission to concede “need” as a gateway to property; thereby sanctioning a mystic morality in which men deal with one another not as traders, but as parasites. A morality where a man is not an end in himself, but is an asset to the needy, a catalyst to the public good, a means to any looters end, a sacrificial animal. Although most Capitalists would never openly support such an altruist morality, they continue to indulge in doublethink by supporting free markets, because they seem to give way to greater prosperity; while evading the stipulations that Capitalism requires to survive.

Capitalists today are either unable or unwilling to fight for the proper justification of the most profound economic system in history, and as a consequence Capitalism is quickly disappearing from our world. This historical phenomenon of pragmatic epistemology and of intellectual abnegation can be accredited to Capitalism’s very supporters. Historically, almost every proponent of Capitalism has evaded the fact that its expediency is only the result of its practice. There is a reason for their evasion; it’s because most individuals fail to integrate a proper philosophical foundation into their support of Capitalism. However, there was one philosopher who did not indulge in such an evasion, she rose wielding a radical and appropriate defense for Capitalism, a double-edged sword per se, of philosophical integrity and moral validity. The philosopher was Ayn Rand, the sword was Atlas Shrugged.

In 1957 Ayn Rand’s masterwork Atlas Shrugged, presented a philosophy for living on earth. It approached the justification of laissez-faire-Capitalism in a way that had never been done before. The first fundamental difference was that she supported Capitalism with a philosophical foundation. She then revealed that the justification of Capitalism was not in the popular claim that it is the best way to achieve the “public good” but because it’s a moral ideal. She showed that Capitalism is the only politico-economic system that emulates the proper role of government, that it’s the only system parallel to a human’s rational nature, and that the ruling principle of Capitalism makes it the only moral system ever to exist.

Because politics is based off of three other branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics; any attempt to skip these components in the process of supporting Capitalism only dams its progress. In Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand presented the moral-philosophical foundation that Capitalism could not survive without. Ayn depicted a reality of objectivity; with reason as an absolute; and where ones own happiness is the only moral purpose of ones life. It is these three components: objective reality, reason, and self-interest, that Capitalists today fail to recognize. However, if acknowledged, this philosophy then reveals the proper justification of Capitalism, its morality:

Rand, through the character “John Galt” explains to readers that of all the things that are open to disagreement, there’s one thing that isn’t: the initiation of physical force on individuals. She also explained that the only way mans rights can be violated, is through the initiation of force. Thus, because no individual has the right to initiate force against another, the same is true concerning a collective, in any private or public context. Seeing as it’s immoral to initiate force against an individual for any reason, it’s also immoral to initiate force for reasons of the public good. Any attempt to benefit the “public good” is an immoral effort to provide an advantage to one collection of individuals at the cost of another. In a free society i.e. one that practices Capitalism, no individual’s profit comes at the expense of another. In this type of society, the proper role of government is to protect individual rights. In order to do this the government does not allow citizens to use physical force against each other, and the Law prohibits the government from using force against citizens, except in retaliation against those who unjustly initiate its use. This would be ensured by means of the police, the military, and in the event of any private disputes, the courts. Capitalism therefore ensures the essential components of freedom and morality: the protection of individual rights. This ensures a code that guarantees every man the right to be fully free to act on his own judgment and for his own sake. In this type of free Capitalist system every man is able to interact with his fellow beings by means of reason, through voluntary consent and contract; each according to his own rational judgment, with his own happiness and pleasure as his motivation. (Biddle, 2009)

The reason the proper role of government is as such, is due to Capitalisms core and underling principle: Justice. The man, who works to sustain his own life by means of the product of his own effort, is and should be entitled to any profit he makes in his process of production. Under Capitalism, and only under Capitalism, is he is entitled to his profit. It is ones moral right to produce a value and to trade that value for value, and enjoy the fruits of ones labor, not because one is entitled to that enjoyment, but because one has earned it, and therefore, entitled to enjoy its benefits. Capitalist societies allow man the freedom to dispose of his property in any manner he chooses, because the very essence of ones work is the selfish and moral pursuit of ones own pleasure and profit. Some treat these virtues—pleasure and profit— as shameful fixations. These men evade the fact that a skyscraper does not erect itself by magic; that an engine does not run on wishes; that food will never make its way from the fields to ones plate by itself. They evade the fact that man’s mind is the root of all production. They disregard the fact that the profit one earns through ones own blood sweat and labor is Justice.

Perhaps the most important validation of Capitalism is the fact that it is the only system in existence that is primed to the life of a rational being. The most basic motive of Atlas Shrugged was to introduce the nature of mans mind, of its proper place in the realm of existence, and its proper role in reality. Rand explained that man is a rational being, and that his rational faculty is his only means of survival, and that production is a moral aspiration. She taught that reason is the only source of granting knowledge to any thinker. The only means by which one can perceive reality; reason is the only process in which one is able to make judgments concerning ethics, art, politics, and therefore ones only channel to action i.e. his only channel to live. Reason is a man’s most basic need for survival. However, the ability to exercise ones rational facility is not an automatic process, and because thinking, and action are properties of the individual, the men who think must be free from the interference from those who evade that effort. Capitalism grants this freedom. (Rand, 17)

In Atlas Shrugged, Capitalism is depicted as an ideal so superlative, that only the books heroes were noble enough to grasp its true meaning. In Galt’s Gulch, their Capitalist society granted the heroes protection from the whips, the guns and the orders of the irrational brutes, from the violation of their most precious rights, from the theft and fraud of the moochers and looters, and most importantly, their right to ones own reason, or in other words their right to live. Capitalism’s infallible morality—of freedom, and justice— are the crux of it’s justification; prosperity, wealth, and the “public good”. . .these are only it’s consequences.

Work Cited

Rand, Ayn. (1957). Atlas shrugged. United States: Random House.

Rand, Ayn. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. CENTENNIAL EDITION. NY,NY,USA: SIGNET, 1967. 18, 17. Print.

C. Rick Koerber , . "Re-Launching Free Capitalist Radio." The Free Capitalist Radio. Free Capitalist Daily, January 21, 2010 . Web. 28 Aug 2010. .

Biddle, C. (2009). Capitalism and the moral high ground. The Objective Standard, 3(4), Retrieved from http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2008-winter/capitalism-moral-high-ground.asp#_ednref17