Socialists Are As Capitalist As Capitalists

One of the preposterous things about the anti-capitalist brigade is that, whatever form of leftism is being espoused, they still get to enjoy all the benefits of capitalism that the capitalists enjoy. The anti-capitalists are capitalists in virtually every way imaginable, except, ironically, when they tell us they want to help kill the capitalism that has bestowed such an enriched way of life upon them. Leftists who claim to hate capitalism are like swimmers who claim to hate buoyancy.

So, on what basis do I claim that leftists are really capitalists? Partly on the observation that the incentives and the rules of growth and progress that govern the free market also govern their consumption habits, their value structure, their logic and their revealed preferences. Partly on the basis that they strive to make their lives better and more secure and more materially prosperous in the way that resembles the market system. Partly on the basis that they seem more content being better off than worse off. Partly on the basis that they act in ways that make their lives better off in the same way that capitalism is the aggregation of people acting in ways that make their lives better off. Partly because most of them bemoan the wealth of the rich, yet exhibit consumption habits that increase the wealth of the rich. Partly because almost no leftist has ever protested against the rich capitalist country they live in by leaving and moving to a poorer socialist country. The list goes on.

When I see people working hard, trying to provide for their families, tying to innovate, trying to beat the competition (for jobs, for goods, for services), enjoying the fruits of their labour, undertaking mutually beneficial transactions with people of different skills, knowledge, backgrounds, ethnicity, culture and education - all of which reflect the fundamental benefits of capitalism over the past few thousand years, and especially the past few hundred - I can feel pretty confident that we can take their actions as indication of their values and their priorities. However, when I see people shouting in the streets with leftist placards, or blocking the roads, or spilling orange paint during sports events, it's much less obvious whether they are motivated by a genuine desire to do good, or by perverse incentives, personal malice, or as victims of a mass social contagion that brainwashes their young minds.

Moreover, the person actively engaged in the realities of the market is much more likely to have a balanced view of the arguments than the person who just sees bad in capitalism wherever they go. And the person with the greater stake in the success of the market's qualities is likely to have more self-determination than the person who just wants to protest its existence from the outside - and is therefore far more likely to have weighed up the realities of trade and competition. The anti-capitalists want to have their cake while telling everyone else how much they hate cake; whereas the capitalists know that if they eat a slice of cake, producers in the market will have to work to produce more cake, and consumers will have to work hard to purchase that cake. I know which group I'd trust to offer a reliable critique of the situation.

Not only are socialists way more capitalist than they are socialist - in fact, they are only socialist because they are capitalist (because capitalism provides all the resources for socialism).