Late night talk show host Bill Maher recently said that capitalism has failed, and this explains why many young people are voting for socialist candidates. “When you’re 30 years old, and you still have roommates? Yes, capitalism has failed you,” he remarked. Maher is wrong. Capitalism hasn’t failed.
What we have today is not capitalism. It Is a mixture of freedom and controls. Capitalism is the socio-economic system that protects individual rights, including property rights—the freedom to produce and trade. Under capitalism, an individual is free to live his life as he chooses, so long as he respects the freedom of others to do the same.
From tariffs to zoning, from occupational licensing to “renewable” energy mandates, governments at every level impose restrictions and controls on how individuals can produce, trade, and use material values. Yet, when individuals experience economic hardship as a result of these restrictions and controls, it is capitalism that is blamed.
Maher was correct to state that socialism doesn’t work. A mixture of socialism and capitalism doesn’t work either.
Under socialism, an individual’s life belongs to society, which may control how he uses his property (zoning), demand society’s permission to work (occupational licensing), or dictate the type of vehicle he can drive (EV mandates). Under socialism, individuals are not free to live for their own happiness. They must work and live for the alleged well-being of society. Under socialism, an individual cannot live his life as he chooses, but only as society permits.
Maher’s claim that young people are voting for socialists because of the economy is a superficial explanation. The state of the economy is an effect. Morality is the cause.
The dominant morality in America today (and indeed, the entire world) is altruism, which holds that individuals must place the welfare and interests of others before their own. According to altruism, individuals should not live for their own happiness, but for the alleged well-being of others. Socialism (and every form of statism) is the socio-economic result of altruism.
If Americans truly want a socio-economic system that works for everyone, they must begin by rejecting altruism. They must discover the meaning of Thomas Jefferson’s declaration that all individuals are endowed with “certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Until Americans embrace the principle that each individual has a right to live for his own happiness, America will continue its march to socialism.
