WHAT IS CAPITALISM?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2533, 23 January 1923, Page 2

WHAT IS CAPITALISM?

THE TEST OF EXPERIENCE. . It is easy to move the passions of the masses by shouting “we must do away with the scourge of capitalism” but the practical questions to lie faced are why does Capitalism continue? and what can replace it? Both those who abuse Capitalism and those who defend it, are apt to overlook the most important features of the subject 1 hey are discussing. They talk of the capitalist ’ “system” as if it were a social convention, a legal code, or a State regulation; whereas, in point of fact, it is none of these things. Capitalism is not a system; it is a practice. Tl exists, not because it has been imposed by anybody on somebody else but because it is rooted in instinct. Like the weather, it may be good, bad, or indifferent, but it is as certainly, inevitable. Abusng the climate will not alter the weather, and those who are wise take the steps necessary to adapt themselves to their ultimate environment.

Capitalism rests on a triple basis; (1) the recognition of the right of the individual to possess private property; (2) the expectation of reward for exceptional enterprise; (3) the necessity for thrift. All human beings are acquisitive; they are more concerned, also, to provide for themselves and their families than they are to serve others. This natural desire gave rise to and perpetuated the institution of private property; and the instinct which prompted it is as strong to-day as in the past. Another natural instinct is ambition, and men who are worth their salt have ever striven to improve their position by dint of enterprise. If they should be denied tBo rewards earned by those who succeed, men would cease to exert themselves, and the standard of living for all would steadily decline.

Thrift mav not be instructive, but mankind has learnt by long and bitter experience that, if it immediately consumes nil it creates, the time will come when past indulgence will not compensate for present need.

Tvpe alter type of theoretical Communism lias been laboriously conceived, form after form has been submitted to the test of experiment, but none lias survived. Destroy Capitalism. with all its works, one dav and it will begin to reconstitute itself' the next. Saturate a company of humans with the tenonts of Communism, plant it in a distant colony where there are no henroosts to despoil and at once the old leaven of capitalism will begin to work to the undoing of all the theory. Disinterested benevolence i> a gem of the purest water, and I bore is plenty of room for it in the existing order; but as an econo.mie motive quixotism is, and always has been a monumental failure. The merit of Capitalism consists in the fact that it is the result of a process of trial and error evolved throughout the centuries. Its .jnstilication lies in its persistence, and its chief failing resides in its incompleteness. In the Ideal State every worker would be a capitalist and every capitalist a worker. “The business of those who believe in the essential virtue of private enterprise is to remove its evils.”

The constitution of society at any particular time is often confused with the natural ills and weaknesses of humanity which would continue however if the political and economic systems were altered. Capitalism is blamed for many evils it, i,s only coincident with.

(Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)