by Kyle Johnson
Criticisms of capitalism are nothing new. But few critiques become a meme. Perhaps you’ve encountered “Late Stage Capitalism” in the wild—it’s a catchall term used to describe an undesirable circumstance or outcome that is somehow unique to capitalism.
A hospital charging $200 per aspirin?
Late Stage Capitalism.
Of course, governments control the permitting and licensing of medical schools, doctors, nurses, and hospitals. Governments are also the consumer advocate of last resort. There are many ways governments could prohibit or punish such practices. But they choose not to.
But the Anti-Capitalists who fling around the Late Stage Capitalism meme never bat an eye at the state’s failure to do so.
The meme has become successful because it enhances the Anti-Capitalists’ ability to complain. Make no mistake, complaining is their primary goal. Anti-Capitalists are doomers looking for the worst in every situation.
Some years back one of them made an all-time absurd tweet:
“If you think about it. People with glasses are literally paying to use their eyes. Capitalism is a bitch.”
This non-sequitur got 255,000 “likes.”
That’s certainly one way to look at the situation. Another is that Mother Nature is a bitch. Some capitalists spent millions on research and development of medical goods. Pay a small price and your eyesight can be restored in a variety of ways (glasses, contacts, corrective surgery).
Only someone with a preference for misery would view the situation as explorative rather than miraculous.
But Anti-Capitalists are simpletons who compare what-is with some imaginary fantasyland and then get upset that there’s a gap between the two.
This requires zero intellectual rigor.
It doesn’t even require a tether to the real world.
If it’s not stupidity, it must be dishonesty.
“Educator” and former college professor, Nina Turner, believes to have capitalism’s endgame figured out, tweeting:
“There’s literally a children’s board game that demonstrates that ‘free-market capitalism’ always leads to one person controlling everything.”
I’m curious about the last time she trespassed due to a roll of the dice. Maybe the next time she’s in jail awaiting a lucky draw from Community Chest, she can brush up on the rules for the bank in Monopoly and the Federal Reserve—both may issue new money at its discretion and without limit.
It’s hard to believe a supposedly educated person could utter such a fallacious thing without a conscious intention to deceive—or at least to obscure the truth with deliberate misdirection.
Money is essential to civilization. Barter exists, but half of most transactions involve money. We’re well over 100 years into the Federal Reserve experiment. The results have been horrific—$1 in 1913 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $30 today.
Nevertheless, humanity soldiers on. From automobiles to refrigeration, to the personal computer… the trend is for anything new to go from being an item of extreme luxury to a commonplace.
Capitalism has done an excellent job of covering the basics for the largest number of people as well. In the 1870s, over 142 per 100,000 died of famine. Today, it’s 0.5 per 100,000.
That’s the true legacy of capitalism.
And if it has a “late stage,” that’d be the end of poverty.
Ignore Anti-Capitalistas.
KJ
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