Despite what Michael Moore says, this video contains at least ten reasons to love capitalism. Can you spot all ten?
1. Capitalism brought us retail grocery stores with an abundance, diversity, and affordable price of food unprecedented in the history of the world.
2. American commercial theater, which strongly influenced this video, developed in the heart of capitalist New York over the past two centuries.
3. No capitalism, no Internet. No Internet, no hilarious, low-budget videos like this.
4. Capitalism brought us YouTube, a perfect distribution medium for such videos.
5. Capitalism brought us high-quality digital cameras, recording equipment, and video editing software.
6. You can thank capitalism for the energy that powered the abovementioned equipment to produce this video, and your computer so that you can watch it.
7. Before capitalism, people toiled remarkably long hours just to subsist. Art and leisure remained largely the purview of wealthy aristocrats. Post-capitalism, these young people had the leisure to produce this video, and you have the time to watch it because capital makes your labor more productive, allowing you to work fewer hours, while making more income, to buy more affordable products than in the entire history of the world!
8. Capitalism is about individualism. Individuals get to make their own decisions according to their personal tastes and preferences. Capitalism is about freedom, not only the freedom to produce and trade, but the freedom to be different, the freedom to be weird! Thank goodness for that freedom, because this video made me smile today.
9. Capitalism is about collective groups of people cooperating harmoniously. Don't believe me? Think about all the total strangers who cooperated to bring you this video. The people who made it, the people who made the equipment with which they made it, the employees at Google, which owns YouTube, the workers at your power plant who power your computer, and so on!
10. Compare infant mortality rates of former capitalist countries with non-capitalist countries, or those of the pre-capitalist and post-capitalist world, and a stark contrast emerges. It is remarkable, but true to say that without capitalism, a tenth or more (at least) of the people in the video would not have been there and a tenth of you would not be alive to read these words.
1. Capitalism brought us retail grocery stores with an abundance, diversity, and affordable price of food unprecedented in the history of the world.
2. American commercial theater, which strongly influenced this video, developed in the heart of capitalist New York over the past two centuries.
3. No capitalism, no Internet. No Internet, no hilarious, low-budget videos like this.
4. Capitalism brought us YouTube, a perfect distribution medium for such videos.
5. Capitalism brought us high-quality digital cameras, recording equipment, and video editing software.
6. You can thank capitalism for the energy that powered the abovementioned equipment to produce this video, and your computer so that you can watch it.
7. Before capitalism, people toiled remarkably long hours just to subsist. Art and leisure remained largely the purview of wealthy aristocrats. Post-capitalism, these young people had the leisure to produce this video, and you have the time to watch it because capital makes your labor more productive, allowing you to work fewer hours, while making more income, to buy more affordable products than in the entire history of the world!
8. Capitalism is about individualism. Individuals get to make their own decisions according to their personal tastes and preferences. Capitalism is about freedom, not only the freedom to produce and trade, but the freedom to be different, the freedom to be weird! Thank goodness for that freedom, because this video made me smile today.
9. Capitalism is about collective groups of people cooperating harmoniously. Don't believe me? Think about all the total strangers who cooperated to bring you this video. The people who made it, the people who made the equipment with which they made it, the employees at Google, which owns YouTube, the workers at your power plant who power your computer, and so on!
10. Compare infant mortality rates of former capitalist countries with non-capitalist countries, or those of the pre-capitalist and post-capitalist world, and a stark contrast emerges. It is remarkable, but true to say that without capitalism, a tenth or more (at least) of the people in the video would not have been there and a tenth of you would not be alive to read these words.
