Overcoming Nature
One argument I’ve heard more than a few times in favor of laissez-faire, unfettered capitalism is that it’s “natural”. For example:
“The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve 'the common good.' … [it] lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature” -Ayn Rand
This idea comes from the fact that unfettered capitalism creates an ecosystem similar to nature where the strong excel over the weak. It allows human nature to shine through by forcing us to compete for survival. Some have called this social Darwinism for its similarities to evolution. I don’t deny that this claim is true, but there’s one glaring issue with this argument:
Human nature is self-destructive.
Back when humans evolved, when their lives most accurately portrayed their nature, they lived in small groups that would kill, rape, and eat other humans as a regular part of their lives. That is human nature. Is that really what we want to be aiming to allow to shine?
Humans are far from the most physically imposing animal on Earth. The primary way the human race has thrived in nature has always been our minds. At the start of the human race, all of that mental energy had to be devoted to basic survival: food, water, shelter. Once small tribes worked together, people could specialize to a degree, but a lot of mental energy was still spent figuring out how to protect themselves from other tribes. It was only once a robust enough society with law and order was built up that humans were able to achieve truly remarkable feats like modern medicine, landing on the moon, and the possibility of retirement.
Would a young adult, near their physical prime, go off to learn at college if their family was constantly under threat of being pillaged by others? Would a woman leave her home and become as involved in advancing society as women are today if there was an immediate threat of any man abducting her as a sex slave? Would people loan money to others to allow them to start new businesses, if debt disputes were settled by who was stronger?
We were only able to do these things and get to where we are today because we overcame our nature. Doing so was arguably the greatest thing the human mind has been able to achieve. Without that, we would struggle for survival generation after generation, never spending time to advance. This is the value society has provided for us, and is the value the government should aim to provide for us.
Unfettered capitalism ultimately expresses human desires, as demand drives the market, and demand comes from what humans want. This sounds all well and good if, again, we ignore the fact that what humans want is not conducive to our long-term survival. Once we provided effectively unlimited food and eliminated the need for most physical labor, people ate so much that it killed them. Once we provided computers as entertainment, people used them so much that countless products were created to correct the posture problems computers cause. Once we provided cars, we destroyed entire neighborhoods in cities to build noisy, ugly, polluting roadways so we could use the cars more.
I’ve spent a decent amount of time studying what brings happiness to people, and without a doubt the biggest conclusion I’ve drawn is that most humans don’t know what makes them happy. Most humans want comfort and to be entertained, and sadly, too much of those aren’t actually what make them happy. In fact, voluntarily introducing discomfort and periods without entertainment are two of the most reliable ways to be more happy.
I probably wouldn’t have been compelled to write this if happiness was the only factor, though. Unfortunately, our desire to be comfortable is costing us our future. Times are changing fast, and people would rather stay comfortable by keeping things the same, than change to keep up. In America, most people don’t vote for politicians who push for significant change, even when significant change is the only way to stop the Earth from becoming uninhabitable. They say they don’t want the government taking their money through taxes, without appreciating that tax money is what supports the society that’s necessary in order to live without constant fear. They say the government shouldn’t regulate companies, without realizing that without those regulations, the companies would be harming us through things like pollution, and the poor practices that caused the 2008 recession.
Path Forward
We need strong regulations, welfare, and social programs within our capitalist system. The politicians who support these ideas, who are typically progressives, are the ones that will allow us to continue to move forward as a society.
It could be argued that the entire purpose of society is to overcome human nature: suppress the self-destructive primitive urges to allow us to thrive through more productive uses of our time, energy, and intelligence. In that sense, a system being more attuned to human nature is not only not a reason to approve of it, but actually a reason to explicitly disapprove of it.
Post photo by Holger Link on Unsplash
