With your whole heart.

The few, if any, of you that are reading this know that I am a man of great ambition. Unfortunately I was not born of great means. For this reason I love movies for their ability to transport me, and at times, draw inspiration from them. Guys like me--the dreamers, country boys, and silly-hearts--love movies like Gattaca and read novels like The Great Gatsby. From that we pull our inspiration that there really is, "no genetic code for the human spirit" and other such pre-packaged tidbits of capitalistic jargon. I am a capitalist and I make no apologies for it. I believe that we can do more by creating safe jobs in this world than we can by just handing people money and saying "there you go, have a dollar." I often, living in Beijing, see homeless people that want money and come up to me saying "Hello! Money!" I have recently started to give these people food from the local 7-11. You would not believe the shock. But that's just who I am. Once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout.

So you may be wondering how all these things fit together? Well I will tell you. Capitalism is not good, nor is it evil. It is simply a means to get people involved in the process of making things, getting them from point A to point B, and then selling them. Taking those proceeds and using it to hopefully reinvest in the business to then help workers pay for the necessities of life. That is what we are to do in our system. But unfortunately we are living in a society that has gone a little nuts. Our quest for acquisition of wealth has made us convinced that we need to get Ivy League educations or something comparable and go hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in the hopes that we can get a high-paying job later on in life. We believe that if we do not have this magic paper then we will not be successful and get our American Dream. I admit that I was fooled into this. I have the student loan payments to prove it. But did it deliver on its promises? I don't know yet, honestly. For those of you that wish a billionaire's perspective on an over-priced education should read Michael Bloomberg's book. You may rethink all those student loans.

The one thing that Capitalism can do, unlike any other form of monetary distribution, is reward winners and losers the most effectively. In fact, it requires everything of you to be incredibly successful. If you want to live the dream you have to give it your everything--hold nothing back. There is the essence of our system. Living in China you notice that there are some hallmarks of Capitalism that are happening today that exist in Advanced Capitalist Societies the world over: homelessness, hopeful youth, a driven workforce, wealth inequality, rapidly increasing skylines testing the limits of gravity itself, and row after row of new cars. Many Chinese today are critical of their peers, saying that they are spending too much and not saving enough (average savings rate is 40% for the working generation and 60% for their parents). With these new savings the Chinese are learning the value of truly "living the life." But this lesson is an old one, really. The nouveau riche of China are working 70-80 hours per week to afford these new toys and luxuries. They are marrying later which is making their parents more and more concerned. The birth rate is state-controlled but even without that policy the urban Chinese are having less and less children. Why? Because they are working and want to spend money on themselves. Sound familiar?

I titled this blog "with your whole heart" because I am in some way asking us to forgive Capitalism for something that it does not mean to intentionally do--cause immense harm. Capitalism is dependent on continued consumption to survive so destroying all available firms participating in the process would be pointless. Capitalism produces churn naturally; meaning that firms are created and destroyed by the business-cycle. This is important because without this shedding of ineffective firms you get stagnation like was experienced in the former Soviet Union. Really, you must separate Capitalism from the passions of greed. Greed is what drove this economy into the gutters...but it is also what just might save it. The human need to want inexplicably more things is tied to our desire to make our lives better. If you want to make your life more efficient, and you can afford it, you go out and buy something that will increase your work output. Unfortunately with credit cards people bought on the assumption that they could postpone repayment at an undefined date. Credit card companies then in a 1996 Supreme Court case (Smiley v. Citibank) were given the right to argue that fees and overdraft fees could be considered as money earned. Also, any restrictions on the amount they could charge for late fees were lifted. Did the banks force these people to take out credit cards? But also, being from modest means myself, I can understand that in life things happen and you have to make the tough choices. So where does that leave us? Is it the fault of Capitalism for providing the environment for this to occur? If you would argue that point then I would say this same horrible environment is responsible for most, if not all, of our modern technological and medicinal marvels in the last fifty years. So is it fair to call it "evil" by its very nature?

Finally dear reader I must point out that until we learn to control our passions; to temper them in some way, we are doomed to continue this cycle. Country boys like me have dreams of success yes, but we can either turn out to be Andrew Carnegie or Bernard Madoff. The outcome depends on whose dreams come to fruition. Carnegie was written off until he came to this country and worked his way up. Madoff said that he started with $5,000 from doing various outside jobs and then used that to start his investment company. But, and I ask you this, which of these two men will be remembered for their giving? I'd bet it's Carnegie, the man that built thousands of libraries. And here is the essence of my point: In giving away everything, he may have gained everything. The good book says that we cannot buy our way into heaven; but it also says that money for money's sake is the root of all evil (1 Timothy, fyi). In short, the morality of the individual is what we should be assessing here. We all love the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge not because of his acquisition of wealth and his business acumen, but rather because of his great conviction to charity found in the end.

Capitalism allows for an environment of incredible good and bad simultaneously. Until we allow these capitalists to put their whole hearts into their work we can never reap the benefits of what they so lovingly sow. Conversely, we can also never bring down the harsh rule of law on them either until they are set to work. It is up to us as a society figure out the best way to reward the virtuous profiteers from the vicious ones. In short, we need to set better guidelines. But that much is obvious to even the most casual of observers.

But that is just one man's opinion. Be well dear reader.

--A Wise Man in the East