Here's Why You'd Better Be Supporting Capitalism

It was 2005 and Dave Grossman, author of the bestseller On Killing, was speaking to an auditorium of Infantry Paratroopers about war, violence and killing before being deployed to Afghanistan. He assured us that stories of "the broken soldier" were merely Hollywood fantasies and that we were in complete control of our psychological equilibrium. What he also said to us was that people's perception of the war was changing for the worse, however, that we should not allow that to distract us from the mission of keeping America safe.

"Soldiers are sheepdogs because you protect the sheep. People tend to resent and fear the sheepdogs when there is no threat. They will protest them, starve them and even brutally criticize them. However, when the wolf is at the gate, the sheep will always run back to the sheepdog and beg for forgiveness."

What he said about the public vilifying the soldier in times of peace while contrastingly clinging to them in times of war reminds me a lot of the current negative perception toward capitalism.

Capitalism is the sheepdog. While the government has not produced anything, save collecting money from its top earners and spreading it amongst its lowest earners, the government did not in fact generate the wealth. Capitalism did. Capitalism fought the battles against the wolf of poverty, joblessness and starvation. All the sheep of government did was say, "Here is the wolf, please defeat him," and capitalism came running. The problem is now that the wolf is at the gate and the government "sheep" want to handle it. As entitlements are increasing and jobs are decreasing, now is not the time to let the sheep fight the wolf. We need capitalism.

But why do people hate capitalism when we need it most?

It seems that companies like Enron and sociopaths like Bernie Madoff have permanently tarnished the reputation of capitalism. If an Olympic athlete was caught illegally "doping," do you blame the sport, or the athlete? Likewise, if a business employee is accused of wrongdoing, do you go after the business, or business in general? When Mark McGwire was caught using steroids, not one person said baseball was the enemy. Capitalism is not the enemy, the enemy is the enemy.

We need to remember our American roots of fighting taxes and preserving individual freedom. Entitlements don't create jobs; capitalism does. Capitalism doesn't outsource labor; greedy unions do. Capitalism doesn't create unemployment; taxes do. We need to remember that we are Americans who do not, and will not, blame our shortcomings on the president, Mitt Romney or Chinese laborers. No matter what your political affiliation, just remember that the fruit of our potential is the potential to bear fruit.

Capitalism is very good to me, and if you work hard, capitalism will be good to you, too.

To your success!

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Matthew Steffen is president of Imprinsic Marketing Group, of Haddonfield. He resides in Laurel Springs.