What is Capitalism?

Capitalism is neither a form of government nor society. It is simply a process for making more money with the money you already have (some scholars will probably be upset at my choice of terms but I prefer to stay with the common vernacular understood by most people). When you work and earn your pay everything you do not immediately spend on living expenses and luxuries (those items not necessary for living but they can make it a lot more enjoyable) is capital. You can stash it away for a rainy day or save it up for a large-ticket item you've been wanting for some time or you can invest it with the hope of making more.

The opportunities for investment are numerous. You can save up enough to start your own business and hopefully make more at it than you were making at your old job (though this is only a small part of what leads many people to take this route). You can loan it to a friend or relative who promises to pay you back with some extra for the trouble of not having access to your money for the time they had it (this extra is usually called "interest" - in that it interested you in making the loan). You can deposit it with a savings institution that will in turn make loans to people that the experts at the institution choose are a good risk with your money. The institution will then pay you interest for letting the institution "borrow" your money.

In and of itself, Capitalism is morally neutral and like a firearm, it is the person who uses it that is either good or evil. The hope is that with very little labor on your part you can, as the old TV commercial goes, "put your money to work for you" to make a profit. And making a profit is not evil, no matter how "obscene" some might label it, as long as all parties in any transaction of exchange entered into business voluntarily (if there is coercion or deceit, then a crime has been committed). You hopefully make a profit at the job you work at now. If it cost you more to go to work than what you make at work, why are you still going to work?

A capitalist could invest his capital in hiring a bunch of thieves and robbers to pillage and plunder everyone else and he would then have bought a stake in all the loot they gather. We generally call this, "Lobbying Congress." When capitalism is used for dark purposes - cronyism, corporatism, mercantilism - it requires the involvement of government. Government can never protect us from the excesses of capitalism since we usually find it at the root of any problem, and like most roots, its work is done below the surface with nothing but pretty little flowers to show above ground. If you want get rid of the dandelions, you've got to get the root...