Most of the world today runs its economy on the capitalist ideal. Some countries use other forms of government, mostly dictatorships/communist which are highly unsuccessful (ie. North Korea) and extremely unpopular (ie. Iran). Only a small pocket of these are even successful (ie. China). The idea of capitalism is one of a competitive market. A plan that essentially, everyone starts with nothing and is "equal" in potential to make their fortune (...the pursuit of Land, Liberty...).
But can you really start at zero, at nothing. Nobody does, that is insane, and not possible. You start life in America piggybacking on the teats of your family. Inheritance, jobs, connections, upbringing, class, all of these are determined from the moment you exit the birth canal. Whether you are an orphan, a Kennedy, or an immigrant, you are raised with certain assets that cannot be lost only broken or matured. Don't believe me look it up. Statistics show your chances for finding a job (and earning an income) are very different depending on your gender, race, background, criminal record, etc. That is not a fact we like to admit but it is true. In short the grounds for the capitalist idea of starting equal, is a shaky one at best.
Take a look at the video below and let me know what you think....
The idea of a competitive market brings with it the idea of economic growth. For those of you mathematicians out there, the economic growth of the capitalist system supports a slope. The ideal curve, like they talk about in the clip, is a slow rising curve. The thing about slope and growth is that it rises leaving more on one end and less on the other. Now the curve in our system is not a slow rising one for various reasons: taxes, standard of living rates, inflation, supply/demand, etc. The actual economic curve we have is an exponential curve. For the non-math people out there, an exponential curve climbs leaving everything on the far right or one percent-ers. Whether it starts out dramatically weighted or evenly divided, it grows exponentially to one side leaving the other one broke. Essentially this has always been the case we are just now seeing the curve grow out of hand and it can only get worse.
What we have to understand about economics is that it is a limited money system. Meaning that the government doesn't add or remove large amounts of money because it affects its value and hurts the economy causing huge inflation (History has shown us this doesn't work). For example if you have an exponential curve and there are 100 apples. One person, lets say the "Apples CEO" earns 10 apples a day while the minimum wage person earns 1 apple a day. The CEO's earnings are growing daily, but where do those apples come from? Well from the pockets of customers like the minimum wage person. The apples customers cause a huge demand for the CEO's product causing him to raise his prices. While the minimum wager keeps earning the same he is spending more. Eventually the CEO will have ALL the apples. It's like a game of Monopoly, because in a competitive market there can only be one winner.
If this is all true, I believe it is, what direction is America headed in? Most people don't realize that the United States is currently the oldest established government still around today. All other governments: Britain, Spain, Russia, etc. have undergone radical change whether it was: the fall of communism, or the change from monarchy to Parliament, these government haven't lasted as long as us.
The question in reality is what do we do? When the one percent owns +40% the wealth, how do we spread that out evenly again? Do we take it away from them and spread it out, because that's essentially socialism. Which is bad for some reason... But how do we fight a system built to have a winner?
How, as Christians, do we fight a greedy system? With sharing or community? I am always encouraged when I see God's people thinking outside the box (ie. The Simple Way, Medi-Share). So my question is what is our solution socialism, community, barter/trade system? C.S Lewis was a strong believer in Christians being involved in every aspect of the secular world to be leaders, this included economics. So please tell the world your thoughts comment below I love to hear from you about your experience or ideas.
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