You are making a lot of assumptions about me, and boxing me in quite a bit. I’m not some ardent defender of capitalism, generally. I’m an ardent defender of property rights and individualism/autonomy. The predominate concepts that I believe apply most to economic systems are incentive structures, scarcity, and human behavior. If those three things get plugged in as variables into any of or mix of economic systems that humans have applied in complex markets, capitalism by comparison has had objectively better results than collectivism. Which I’m not saying that you’re even advocating for, I understand your position is a bit more nuanced, as is mine. Pure capitalism has ills and faults, too. 💯 acknowledge that. But the idealism you are projecting hasn’t occurred yet in a complex human society with enough historical record and/or participants to contrast it with say capitalism or socialism. I don’t believe that profit is synonymous with exploitation as you do, we definitely part company there. Having a higher output than input when providing a good or service aligns the incentives to continue to provide that good or service in a valuable and consistent manner. If that is a hallmark of capitalism then I would say that is one objectively positive aspect. We can go on and on, ultimately we’d be talking in circles. To me, it’s all a moot issue if the money is broken, money is the foundation of the incentive to provide anything of value to the world outside of your immediate tribe. In complex systems we need a medium of exchange that fairly represents value. If one of your contentions is that capitalism itself is the cause of the fiat system I would disagree as fiat is dependent on the power of centralization and authority, hallmarks of collectivism and communism. The capitalist ideal is that the people/market decides on what the best monetary good(s) will be, not a central/collective few.

I learned a valuable trade, starting at a young age. Learned it quickly and efficiently. Traveled the world applying my skills. Did it hands on for 18 years. Started my own business built on my knowledge and experience in that trade. I own and operate my small business with a partner and we employ 4 other people. We pay those employees for their skills, labor, and time. We pay our suppliers and other overhead costs. As a partner in a business I get a chunk of whatever is left after a project or at the end of a quarter or end of the year for myself and my family, if we did a proper job as a team. I took the risk to organize and set up the business, paid the upfront costs, spent 18 years building my skills and knowledge, exposed myself professionally and financially to attempt to create profitable business. Our employees are well paid and well taken care of. They are completely risk-off in the equation. They go to work, then go home with not a care in the world about what happens after-hours. Meanwhile, on the backend I’m constantly hustling on the business aspect. Just for the chance to earn a little bit of profit for the business and possibly myself. Do you, with your worldview, see some issue with this scenario? Genuinely wondering what The socialist take would be here…

A lot to discuss. A few things…we disagree on the fundamental risk profiles of being an entrepreneur and being an employee. An employee has options if they lose their job. It’s at-will employment, they will find another job if they don’t feel appreciated or compensated enough. Employers will replace employees if they feel they are entitled and not bringing enough value to a business, that’s the beauty of autonomy. I wasn’t intending to describe a “boss” mentality. I work alongside plenty with my crew. My work is usually much different than theirs, however. Our employees are good tradesmen, not good estimators, salesmen, or accountants, etc. The difference in roles automatically creates a dichotomy. I pursue the projects, submit to try to win them, coordinate everything in between in order to provide work for our people to do their job and earn their living. If something goes wrong, I get the call, not them. If there’s an emergency, I represent the business, not my employees. They don’t want that stress, they don’t want the responsibility. There are perfectly good reasons that more people work for someone rather than starting a business of their own. Paying off a house is a contractual transaction. You and a bank agree to terms beforehand. A house is a static economic good, a business is dynamic. They aren’t comparable in the sense you described. A business of your own is indeed an investment. Profits are simply the way to realize a return on your original investment, usually reinvestment is what occurs if one is trying to build/scale the business. Reinvestment manifests in many different ways, profit-sharing being one of them. Most of the great luxuries we enjoy today by way of goods, services, and inventions exist within the context of capitalism. I’m sure we disagree there. I wouldn’t ever claim 100% credit for a successful business, obviously. It takes many different people and skills to build and scale a successful business model, and then a little luck on top of that. What is interesting is that this tiny little niche of a business would nonetheless not exist if it wasn’t for the work and risk I put forth and continue to put forth. Fact is, if I go under tomorrow (for any reason), my crew will have new jobs at a new company within days while I’m left picking up the pieces. I know I didn’t directly address everything you mentioned. Just a few of my immediate thoughts about it. I’m not trying to defend anything, or even be right about anything in particular. It’s simply my belief that capitalism and free market (no mandates, quotas, price controls, wage controls, etc.) autonomy provides the best economic incentive structures for a prosperous economy IF the money is sound. Without sound money, we get the rot and decay that we see in developed countries these days. My opinion is that you are conflating capitalism with corrupted money and that the issues you’ve identified as being products of capitalism are indeed products of the fiat currency system.