I have heard around campus that one of the issues students face is the lack of food options late at night. There was even a column written about it a few weeks ago. I think I can solve that problem.
When I worked in Texas, there was a place in Lubbock that would deliver steaks. For real. They would grill up a rib-eye, or a strip, or even a filet mignon, and deliver it to your door for about the same price as a pizza. I am not lying. The place I ordered from was called “Steak Express.” Look it up.
I want to bring that concept here. And expand upon it. What about delivery barbecue? Delivery carne asada tacos? Just meat, delivered with just a phone call. To your house, your apartment or your dorm. It’s the perfect idea.
If I follow through with this idea, I will put in a lot of time to ensure it is a success. I want to make sure that the issue is fully addressed and that people get what they need or desire. I will forego taking care of some of my own needs or desires in the process. So, it should go without saying, and it should be considered fair, that I be compensated in some way.
And when I eventually gather people to help me, I will need to compensate them as well. I should also be able to ensure my bills are being paid, and that the operation runs smoothly with no problems.
The simplest way is through money, or in other words, through capital.
Did you see what I did there? I just described capitalism. I gave it a tight, compact nutshell, to be sure. But I did describe it just the same, because that’s all that capitalism is: addressing a need and receiving compensation for it.
There’s not much else to it.
I see worries everywhere about how selfish and greedy capitalism is. Or how it treats people like tools. Or how it gives too much power or too much money to only a few people, and can lead to monopolies.
Folks, once again, my column is not large enough to tick off every mistaken accusation against capitalism. So, I will try to be brief with them and address what I deem to be the most glaring problems.
First off, to the claims that capitalism is a system of selfishness and greed, I have only this to say: duh. Of course it is.
A couple columns back, I addressed how selfishness and greed are inherent to the human condition, and are in fact necessary emotions to ensure human well being. When we address our own self-interests, we are being selfish. When we reach for as much as we can, we are being greedy. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I will make sure I have plenty of apples.
Does this selfishness and greed lead to people taking extreme advantage over others? Does it lead to violence and persecution? Does it lead to isolation and exclusion? Et cetera? Of course it could. And I will go ahead and address that in a future column.
As to the other reason why capitalism is seen as such a bad way of life for people, a system that puts a few above many, giving money and power to the hands of only the wealthiest and most successful; I think I can address that in two words.
The state. Let me go into this one by first addressing a basic, in my eyes anyway, concept. Capitalism absolutely depends on unfettered transactions between people.
Unrestricted trade, in other words. A free market, in typical words.
And when I eventually gather people to help me, I will need that in order for capitalism to function properly, there must be nothing in the way of capital going from one hand to another.
That being said, in every case in which a company or business is too powerful or too wealthy, in every case in which one side of the market grows much bigger than the other side, you can bet your bottom dollar that there is a government hand somewhere in the pot.
Take as an example, the fear of the monopoly. A monopoly is a terrible thing for any economy, as it allows only one firm to control a large percentage of product and capital flow. Monopolies are, of course, illegal in America. Almost.
Here’s where I’d like to bring up Martin Shkreli. What a beautiful rebellious jerk he is, right? In another column, I will discuss why I think Shkreli is a force for good. But for now, let’s talk about how he was able to get away with marketing a drug 5,000 percent higher than its original price. Frankly, the government let him do it.
The drug, Daraprim, an antiparasitic used to treat toxoplasmosis (which is something AIDS patients can suffer from, but the drug is not an “AIDS drug,” by the way), lost its patent in the 1950s, and was bought up by the company Impax, for distribution.
Because of heavy regulation in the pharmaceutical industry, brought on by government intervention, smaller companies had not been able to create a generic version of the drug, thereby allowing Impax to have a lot of control. Shkreli knew this, and when he had the necessary funds to do so, he bought the limited drug from Impax for his company Turing, and had full reign to do whatever he wanted with it.
This included jacking the price from $13.50 to $750. Because of the government preventing other companies from creating lower-cost versions of the drug, one company was able to take control of the market.
Friends, that’s all the room I have for this week’s column, but I hope I have given a basic understanding about capitalism. I will continue next week with a comparison of capitalism and socialism. Thanks for reading.
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