Every adult is free to fashion his life according to his own plans. He is not forced to live according to the plan of a planning authority enforcing its unique plan by the police. ... Everybody is free to join the ranks of the three progressive classes (entrepreneurs, savers & technologists) of a capitalist society. These classes are not closed castes. Membership in them is not a privilege conferred on the individual by a higher authority or inherited from one's ancestors.
Ludwig von Mises, "The Anti-Capitalist Mentality"
"People sometimes forget that upward social mobility never existed in human history until the adoption of capitalist economic systems," says Rick Kelo.
Certainly it is the case that upward mobility exists in capitalist societies. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was the son of Syrian immigrants. Rick Kelo notes that most of us can trace our own story like that if we only stop to put it in that perspective. Which generation of your family was the first to attend college? The first to own a sports car or some other prized luxury item?
The problem becomes that we often forget just how generous living in a capitalist economy is. Politicians campaign for office by promising to "do" and "fix" things. These promises inveritably lead to more government programs, which reduce the amount of economic output left for the private sector.
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| Rick Kelo |
