My name is Danny Robinson and I am a capitalist. I also happen to be somewhat of a hippie. I usually wear flip flops; I believe in peace, and I believe there are more important aspirations than making money. Being a capitalist hippie, I empathize with the Occupy Wall Street folks—sort of.
I would love to get the protesters in a giant circle (sans bongos), and explain to them how capitalism, the economy, and the ‘real world’ work. I would explain how capitalism, while not perfect, has created the most advanced society humans have ever known. How socialism has never worked. That people who are smarter or work harder, owe you nothing. That the concept of “spreading the wealth” never works. Not in China, not in Russia, and not here. When governments force equality, everyone becomes equally miserable. This last fact is how we got into the housing mess in the first place. The government thought it wasn’t fair to deny a loan to people who can’t afford a house. Therefore banks were forced to make unstable loans, yet the protesters still blame the banks.
I understand the protesters’ frustrations, but I have a lot of questions [directed to them, here]. The main question is…why are you blaming “rich people” for the arrogance and greed of our elected officials? Why rally against American corporations earning profits? Exxon makes two cents profit from each gallon of gas and employs 150,000 people. We pay over 48 cents per gallon in government taxes on that same gallon. Who’s really ripping you off? Who do you think made your Mac Book that you organize these protests on? Steve Jobs was a capitalist. Do you truly believe that as you protest on Wall St, executives are spinning around in their office chairs with a view of NYC, planning their next yacht purchase? Wait…yes! Yes, you do believe that, but why?
Why are all the protesters misguided? No one taught them any different. They do understand that currently, rich people will always be rich, and poor people usually end up poor, but no one taught them why. This is why their greatest idea of how to change this injustice is to simply show up in cities, and sit there. That leads me to another question. Whose responsibility is it to show young Americans the path to prosperity? Who is in charge of teaching our children the steps to advancing out of poverty?
Unfortunately it lands on the shoulders of another government bureaucracy, the American education system. They operate with the expected level of incompetence and waste that isn’t tolerated in most corporations. Why is this level of ineptitude only seen in government agencies? Corporations are allowed to go out of business. The education system continues to fail at doing its job, turns out a horrible product, and wastes uncountable amounts of money. This is why we have young people sleeping until noon in tents on sidewalks believing they are somehow changing the system for the better.
If you want this country to change for the better, admit that the government is incompetent and should not be given a task as important as educating young Americans. There are tried and true methods of achieving prosperity yet it is not taught to children. Instead we drill subjects like penmanship into their young minds. Repetitious memorization of trivial information is rewarded. Energetic students are forced to sit quietly and listen to monotony. Is it any wonder why Communism sounds so appealing to them by the time they reach college? American corporations are the best in the world at encouraging innovation. They should be offered the chance to fix the education problem–privatizing education has been successful. Kids should be able to be taught to live and be productive in the “real world.” China and Russia are good at producing obedient little factory workers—leave that to them. Let our young Americans be creative and driven individuals. Let them strive to be successful employers, not just acceptable employees. Being from an immigrant family fleeing starvation, I can promise you that the American dream is still alive.
