I’m Not Afraid of Communism

I believe in economics. I don’t mean that I believe in the power of money. I believe in capitalism in so far as I believe that money and markets are an uncontrollable beast that react and respond to the actions of humans regardless of their intent. Capitalists believe that they can and should control this flow, economics could give two fucks about your beliefs because as far as the economy is concerned there are 7+ billion individual sets of belief that will influence it.

Capitalism and communism are effectively the same economic equations from different perspectives. Both understand that there are limited resources and infinite possibilities. Capitalism focuses on the limitations of physical resources: land, machines, raw materials; communism focuses on the labor, the human element. If I’m only ever going to be a variable in an equation, why wouldn’t I choose the equation that at least purports to support my variability?

For most of human history, capital was the defining factor of our societies. The person with the most stuff was often in charge. Most often this was because they were willing to kill for it. At some point, we started having conversations about how maybe, just maybe killing each other is a bad idea. So we formed coalitions and governments and came up with ways to manipulate resources without the need for violence. Currency, markets, the entire economic system: nothing more than tools to achieve outcomes.

Like any tool, when used inappropriately they cause as much harm as they do good. We have…