By Capitalism I am referring to free individuals operating in a free market of ideas products and technological innovations, absent government intervention.

There are many threats we as humanity currently face, and among these, Global Warming and Climate Change are near the top. How we intend to address this problem is colored by our underlying philosophical assumptions and ideologies whether we like it or not.

For instance, if you Google, “How to fight global warming,” the first result is from the Union of Concerned Scientists website which says, “Place limits on the amount of carbon that polluters are allowed to emit. Build a clean energy economy by investing in efficient energy technologies, industries, and approaches. Reduce tropical deforestation and its associated global warming emissions.”

No problem with that right? Sounds reasonable. But not if you dig deeper.

I contend that the Union of Concerned Scientist's paragraph above is an example of the reason why we are not making enough progress in the direction of real change that would effectively battle Global Warming and Climate change, among other things.

First I must define some philosophical terms:

Statism : a political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs, or the belief that social and economic problems can and should be solved by state intervention.

Statist : an individual who supports state intervention in and centralized control over social and economic affairs, and believes that the state should intervene to solve social and economic problems.

It would seem to me that the world is saturated with an underlying foundational belief in Statism.

Though few realize it, the vast majority of people in the world are Statists.

It is important to note that not being a Statist does not mean that you are an anarchist who believes that no government or no State should exist at all. On the contrary, it only means that you believe that the government or State is authorized only in the protection of individual rights and in preserving the security of it’s citizens.

The logical justification for the rejection of Statism and the separation of economy/society and state, is derived from Frederic Bastiat’s observation that government is merely collective force created to substitute individual force.

Bastiat writes:

"If every person has the right to defend — even by force — his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly.

Thus the principle of collective right — its reason for existing, its lawfulness — is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute.

Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force — for the same reason — cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.

Such a perversion of force would be, in both cases, contrary to our premise. Force has been given to us to defend our own individual rights. Who will dare to say that force has been given to us to destroy the equal rights of our brothers? Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?

If this is true, then nothing can be more evident than this: The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons, liberties, and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice to reign over us all."

So the rejection of Statism is derived from the simple maxim that, “What is wrong for the individual is wrong for the collective.”

Seeing the logical foundation for the rejection of Statism, we arrive at a clearer view of the ailment which currently inflicts humanity: All economic and social problems are seen as jobs for the government.

In the example of Global Warming, we see that there is a large problem, and we see so many calling upon government to intervene in order to solve the problem for us.

The Statists among us, (the vast majority of human beings), shout loudly that the solution to the Global Warming problem must be for the government to place limits on the amount of carbon that polluters are allowed to emit. They want the government to institute a Carbon Tax to solve the problem, along with many other government interventions.

An extreme version of the Statist solution would include things like making it illegal to have certain kinds of lightbulbs or drive certain kinds of cars, etc.

Government, being nothing more than collective force, can only solve problems via the application of force.

Not only is force not always a viable solution for every problem, but more importantly, the only problem force can be justified in solving, is the problem of protecting and securing individual rights.

As the belief in Statism is so widely prevalent, so deeply ingrained and so saturated throughout society, it can seem to Statists an intuitive “truth” that the Global Warming problem (like virtually any economic or social problem) can be solved in no other way. To the Statist: only through State intervention can we solve the problem of Global Warming.

Fortunately there is still some remanence of Free Market Capitalism left in the United States to allow Individuals like Elon Musk the freedom to offer alternative solutions, via the Free Market.

How Capitalism Works:

Elon Musk immigrates to the United States from South Africa because "America is the land of opportunity." Another way of saying, "America has a largely free market economy.”

In the early days of the internet he starts his own website, which he codes himself while living in an office space that costs him $425 per month, sleeping on the couch and showering at the YMCA a few blocks away.

The website was an online version of the yellow pages with a business and residential directory and also directions and maps, that allowed large companies to easily go online.

He pitched it door to door, convinced a wealthy Capitalist it was a good idea, got a $3 million venture capital investment, and expanded nationwide, eventually selling the company to Compaq for over $300 million, of which Elon Musk got $22 million.

He then took $10 million of that and started X.com with an idea to make paying for things online easier. He soon merged X.com with another company in the same space and together created PayPal. PayPal was eventually acquired by Ebay for $1.5 billion of which Elon Musk received $165 million.

He then took $100 million of that and founded SpaceX, a company that designs and builds rockets and space ships with the intention to provide public transportation to mars and anywhere else in the solar system.

The remaining $65 million was used to found SolarCity, a company aimed at combatting Global Warming by powering the grid with solar energy rather than with fossil fuels, and Tesla Motors, a company that produces electric cars whose energy will come from that power grid.

Both SpaceX and Tesla came very near to bankruptcy and failure, and Musk injected nearly every last penny he had in his bank account to keep them alive. And now that they are over the speed bump, they are doing quite well, and so is Elon Musk.

Elon Musk is doing more to solve the Global Warming Problem than any government on earth ever has, and he is doing it via voluntary means, rather then through government force.

Elon represents the incomparable good that Free Market Capitalism offers. He did not set out to make the most money he possibly could, he did not seek to get the highest return on investment possible, and his primary goal is not profit.

Yes, profit is a necessary component, because without profit his businesses will die. And yes, he has made considerably more money than the 99% of us ever will, but he has done it by creating value, and he uses the capital he has accumulated efficiently and effectively for the benefit of us all.

Those that argue that Capitalism is all about greed, and selfishness, and exploitation, are rebutted by the existence of people like Elon Musk. In truth, Capitalism offers only the freedom to interact and exchange and trade freely. Capitalism says nothing about whether you use your freedom for good or evil, whether you use your freedom to be greedy and selfish, or generous and compassionate.

The worst of the Statists, the Totalitarians and Communists and Socialists, would argue that Elon Musk is part of the 1%, and his employees do not own the means of production and perform wage labor, and therefore he is doing evil and must be stopped.

These Statists would argue that what we have got to do is have the government take over from here. Government needs to confiscate and control Elon's wealth and spend it how the government sees fit, rather than let Elon invest in ways he decides are best.

Statism: The government knows better than Elon Musk how best to spend Elon's money.

Also, they would argue we can't let Elon own the means of production, the government needs to own that too.

They would even argue that we need to just replace the entire Free Market with totalitarian government control. Guys like Elon Musk should not be allowed to exploit worker's labor and become rich. We need government bureaucracy to make these decisions and come up with these ideas instead.

They say we need to replace free individuals freely exchanging and trading in a free marketplace, with totalitarian government control, central planners, and a government bureaucracy to design and direct our economy instead.

Despite the fact that Elon and others like him utilize the freedom that Capitalism offers to benefit humanity as a whole, still they fail to see that Capitalism and free markets are our greatest hope for a sustainable and happy future.

It all must be discarded because of inequality. Elon Musk makes more than the janitor at SolarCity headquarters, therefore he must be replaced with government bureaucracy.

Goodbye freedom, inequality, and innovation, hello forced equality, serfdom, and breadlines.

The best of the Statists, normal people like you and I that probably don’t even realize we are Statists, would say that Elon can do what he is doing, but the government should confiscate most of his wealth, so he pays his “fair share.”

And also, government still has a role in imposing Carbon Taxes and using taxation to invest in renewable energy and other innovations to combat Global Warming. It should be a team effort between Capitalists and government, not Capitalists alone.

But this ignores two things: 1) If the government weren’t confiscating our wealth to begin with there would be more capital available in the economy to invest in these technologies and we wouldn’t need outside government investment. 2) Just as an individual should not be allowed to use force to take from one person and give to another, the collective (government) should not be allowed to use force to take from some to give to others either.

In the end, government is not going to be what saves us, it is going to be We The People that save us. When you have a Free Market, ultimately it is the people who are in control. The people decide which industries get their business and which industries don’t, and most often that is the industry that offers the best product at the best price.

Elon Musk, Tesla, and Solar City are offering superior products, at the best prices, and We The People are choosing to advance their efforts being putting our money behind them. If we don’t choose sustainable energy and less carbon emissions and solution, then it’s just not going to happen.

The point I am making is:

The change we need to make is not going to happen because of government force.

It’s not going to happen because the government makes investments with our tax money and limits carbon emissions, implements Carbon Taxes, and makes it illegal to use certain kinds of lightbulbs.

If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen because people like Elon Musk take big risks, push innovation forward, and offer products that we individuals freely choose to buy. In short, it is going to happen because Capitalism works, not because government pointed it’s collective gun to our heads to force it to happen.

#capitalism
#statism
#elonmusk
#philosophy
#globalwarming