Why Everyone Can’t Be Rich
A deep dive into all the reasons we can’t all be rich and why capitalism is still the way to go in light of this in America.
Whether it’s resources or money not everyone can be rich. To understand why this is, we first have to look at the lifestyle of the rich. Whether now or thousands of years ago, being rich has always provided one with the same types of luxuries. Tangibly speaking (I’ll address the intangibles later), you have access to the rarest things, the nicest things, and the things that take the most labor to produce. If rich people get the rarest things, obviously everyone can’t have them because they’re rare. If they get the nicest things, it stands to reason that the owners of those nice things would charge as much as they can get for them, which obviously leads to rich people being the only ones who can afford those things. And if they get the things that take the most labor to produce, it’s obvious that those who labored on those things will sell them for as much as they can get for them because time and effort are their own currency. There seems to be a perspective circling around that everyone should have an equal amount of wealth and that we should all be able to experience the nice things. As we just saw though that’s impossible. And so a necessary correction arises: The real reason we can’t all be rich in America isn’t a matter of economics or fixing the system, it’s a matter of psychology, human nature, and the nature of the world at large.
Capitalism Is Still Best
As someone who identifies as a progressive in America, I’m constantly frustrated by my peers who lean towards socialist systems. To clarify, socialism is a broad term but in this case, I’m specifically referring to the ideas of socialism that we need to take down the rich, distribute all resources equally, and let the government control more and more major parts of our society. All of these tenants of the socialist movement that is swelling in America are completely incompatible with the size of our society but also with the natural way of certain people always becoming richer than others, not to mention the structure that has given America the wealth and resources possible for people to even consider this. Make no mistake, I am not ignorant to all of the shortcomings of the current system and all of the sufferings it causes. I am still a progressive, but there are solutions that are much better and much more aligned with reality.
These people will argue that if everyone just got on board with socialism it would work but that’s exactly the problem. We will never see an America where everyone is on board with socialism, this is because wanting to live in that kind of society is a certain disposition that not everyone shares. Additionally, as I mentioned, the size of our society is largely incapable of escaping the human nature of competitiveness and the desire to experience the nicer things, whether they be tangible or intangible simply due to the rarity of them. For instance, on top of the rare things, nice things, and things that took the most labor to produce, it also isn’t possible for everyone to have the ability to attempt anything they want whether that be a new invention, a new business, or even a crazy experience due to the necessity of money to do those things and the existence of money as a way to allow for an exchange of rare, nice, or high labor-produced things, tangible or intangible. Money is just an in-between currency of no value in and of itself. This is why, for all of these reasons and more, capitalism, with some tweaks and fixes, is our best bet for guaranteeing everyone is living a dignified and healthy life.
Capitalism has come under fire lately as being the root of the problems. However, it is not the idea and structure of capitalism itself that is the problem, instead it is the way we are executing it.
Capitalism has come under fire lately as being the root of the problems. However, it is not the idea and structure of capitalism itself that is the problem, instead, it is the way we are executing it. Capitalism is still the best because, ideally, it allows us to exercise our competitive nature in an ethical and humane way and allows for a wealth hierarchy to exist with the same traits. In other words, not only can not everyone be rich, but some people have to be. By allowing there to be rich people in a society and deciding the ethical and humane way to get there we create the best possible outcome that balances ideal systems and human nature. In any other system on this scale, even with the amount of wealth that is here, further wealth gets pursued one way or another and if the system does not allow for that it will be done unethically and inhumanely.
This is where people who lean towards socialism may say, “People are already pursuing wealth unethically and inhumanely so we might as well give another system a shot.” And they’d be right about the first part, which is why I stated earlier that to get to an ideal capitalist system, we just need some tweaks and fixes. What that translates to is better regulations from the government on the market. These would be regulations that actually wouldn’t allow for monopolies and that wouldn’t allow massive corporations like Amazon to escape paying taxes.
Value-Added-Tax and UBI
Of course, this doesn’t solve the problem of people not having their needs met. This is where the next fix comes into play: A value-added tax or VAT that is placed on the largest sectors of our market, other than staple items, such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Uber, and a redistribution of that VAT into the hands of every American adult in the form of a monthly check that is enough to cover basic necessities. Not only does this fall under the regulation category because it’s an effective way to make sure these companies are paying their fair share in taxes but it also directly addresses the problem of allowing people to live dignified lives.
The next fix we need is to address the ability to hope for more and the feeling of purpose. When we imagine the American Dream, a good life, we imagine the ability to chase our dreams, to experience good things in life, and to have a meaningful purpose.
The next fix we need is to address the ability to hope for more and the feeling of purpose. When we imagine the American Dream, a good life, we imagine the ability to chase our dreams, to experience good things in life, and to have a meaningful purpose. A UBI (the monthly check from the government) is a great start to this but we also need to understand the fundamental, and necessary, shift that a UBI brings to the idea of work. To understand this we first have to understand the point/function of the market. What the capitalist market seeks to do and naturally does is to provide value through a product or service to society in exchange for an in-between currency which can then later be used to obtain a product or service of value. A UBI seeks to gain value, from the Value-Added-Tax, that has already been applied to large companies and provides that income to people who provide value outside of the typical sense of a tangible product, service, or experience. This works in two directions.
The first direction is the method by which it’s started. It gives people money so they can do things that aren’t currently earning money even though they are adding value to society. The best example is a stay-at-home mom. We know raising a child and giving them attention is extremely valuable, however, the market currently doesn’t value it because most people aren’t getting a direct value from it and those who are, her children, can’t pay her. The second is that when people get a UBI it lessens the feeling of scarcity, the feeling that you do not have or cannot access resources. This then allows people to value otherwise undervalued or unvalued things again, like buying local art which further instates the value of the UBI for the artist that was enabled to make the art because of the UBI. This way we shift the end goal of capitalism from the market itself, as it currently stands, to human well-being again, which is what any good system seeks to serve. Already, with these couple of tweaks and fixes, the major problems of the system will have been vastly improved. After that it could be argued that parts of the meritocracy would be ideal, namely, the part where whoever provides the most value gets richer. This is no longer an issue of unfairness because people will still have what they need and adding value is obviously naturally valuable.
Conclusion
There are obviously more fixes that are needed such as trying to set everyone up for equal opportunity as much as possible by focusing on upbringing, community environment, and education but by setting everyone up to be financially stable enough to access resources all of those conditions will improve and people will be better equipped to deal with the problems.
I thought it was important to talk about why the rich exist and the nature of their existence before talking about restructuring society because so much of human nature in society can be seen by their existence. We shouldn’t seek to destroy the rich, we should embrace the possibility but give everyone a chance to chase their idea of success whether that be wealth by money, resources, or otherwise for this allows all types of humans to truly exist harmoniously in one society.
