Why I Support Capitalism: A Clear Look at Freedom, Rights, and Your Life
A practical guide to understanding capitalism - how protecting your rights and property creates real opportunity and control over your life.
A question I get a lot is: why do I support capitalism?
That’s a fair question, so let me explain. And no, it’s not out of religious reverence.
Imagine being free to build your business, pursue your hobbies, or simply spend your time as you choose, without bureaucracy, endless rules, or arbitrary interference. In most Western nations today, these choices are complicated by regulations, taxes, and red tape. Capitalism, the system I support, strips all that away and restores the power over your life to you. This is the freedom most Western nations promise but rarely deliver.
What I Mean by Capitalism
You may have your own idea of what capitalism is. When I say “capitalism,” I don’t mean cronyism, state-capitalism, or today’s mixed economies. I mean this:
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition and protection of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. Government exists only to protect those rights, using force only in retaliation against those who initiate it.
Anything else, state capitalism, stakeholder capitalism, anarcho-capitalism, is not capitalism, no matter the label.
Property means your home, tools, savings, and ideas are yours; nobody can take them arbitrarily. Liberty means you choose your work, your hobbies, and the people you spend time with. Life means you can live, pursue happiness, and protect yourself from coercion or harm.
Imagine a small business owner opening a bakery, deciding her menu, hours, and suppliers freely, without waiting months for permits or paying endless fees. Or a parent starting a tutoring business, choosing students and curriculum freely, and reaping the rewards of her effort. That’s what rights mean in practice.
Capitalism in Practice: Rights, Property, and Government
How the Government Protects Your Rights
Government is limited to the police, prisons, military, and judiciary. Its sole purpose is to protect life and property. Force is used only in retaliation against those who initiate it.
If a company dumps toxic waste in a river you own, the government intervenes, ensures cleanup, and provides compensation. If a neighbour trespasses on your land or a supplier fails to deliver, the courts resolve it efficiently and proportionately. Everyday disputes are handled fairly, without unnecessary bureaucracy.
Contracts are enforced as long as they don’t violate rights. A contract to sell yourself into slavery would be invalid, and the “master” would face consequences. Humans are not property.
Government acts as an impartial judge. You don’t need to resort to force; justice is applied fairly and enforced when necessary.
A capitalist republic has elected leadership, a separation of powers, and a constitution built to protect the individual. The individual is sovereign; the government exists only to safeguard that sovereignty.
Everything else, education, science, and commerce, is left to the private sector. Voluntary funding might include fees, lotteries, or contributions, but coercive taxation does not exist. Schools, libraries, and services thrive because people freely support what works. Innovation is rewarded, efficiency is high, and nobody is forced to fund failure.
Everyday Freedom Under Capitalism
Freedom to Work and Create
Your life is yours. You are free to think and act according to your judgment. You could wake up early and work on a new product idea, later stop at a café to discuss a community project, or spend an afternoon learning a new skill, all without needing permission or paying hidden fees. Your effort and creativity translate directly into tangible results, and you feel the pride of seeing your ideas come to life.
Ownership and Reward
You could work at Apple designing products, run a puppy café, build the next SpaceX, or enjoy hobbies like woodworking. All your time, energy, and money belong to you.
Choice and Satisfaction
Capitalism gives you freedom, to soar as high as your ability allows, to write your own story, and to be the hero in your life. Every possession, choice, and opportunity is yours.
Imagine This Life: A Day in a Capitalist Society
Morning: Home and Family
You wake up in your house, fully owned, on land that is yours. Sunlight streams through the windows, and the morning air smells crisp. Beside you, your partner wakes, and your children leap from their rooms, full of energy. The house is modest but comfortable; it was paid off in seven years, as your money goes further.
In the kitchen, breakfast is on the table: eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee for everyone. A week’s worth of food costs only a fraction of what you’d pay today, because competition and innovation drive prices down.
Daytime: Work and Community
Outside, roads are well-maintained because providers compete to offer quality at the best cost. Traffic flows smoothly, and local cafés hum with conversation. You pass a neighbourhood officer sipping coffee, they are there to protect rights, not micromanage lives. Later, a bigot hurls insults. The officer shakes their head but does not intervene. The owner asks the person to leave, and order is restored. Meanwhile, a thief attempts to steal a bicycle, and the same officer intervenes decisively. Justice is clear, effective, and proportionate.
You go to your job, whether your own business or a company you admire. Your pay and hours match your lifestyle perfectly. Even a modest income affords a high standard of living, because essentials are affordable, high-quality, and abundant. You work because you choose to, not because you’re forced, and the satisfaction is real.
Evening: Reflection and Fulfilment
Throughout the day, you trade, interact, and see the fruits of your efforts. Government exists only to protect your life, property, and freedom, leaving you free to create, innovate, and enjoy life without interference.
By evening, you return home satisfied. Every possession, opportunity, and comfort belongs to you. You are free. You are the master of your own life.
The Unknown Ideal: Why Capitalism Matters
Ayn Rand called capitalism the unknown ideal. Humanity has yet to fully explore it. This is why I support capitalism: because only under this system can your life, your choices, and your future belong fully to you.
This is a great definition of what capitalism means
You’ve written in defence of capitalism, leaning on Ayn Rand’s *Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal*. Fair enough — we’ve all got our influences. But the essay reads less like an analysis and more like a brochure for “Capitalism World,” a theme park where the rides never break down, the chips are always hot, and everyone goes home smiling. Let me take your argument, paragraph by paragraph, and explain why it doesn’t hold up.
The Definition Game
You start by saying capitalism isn’t cronyism, state-capitalism, or today’s messy economies. No — yours is pure, pristine, unicorn-grade capitalism. Trouble is, that version has never existed. Historically, capitalism has always been propped up by the state: enclosure of land, colonial expansion, subsidies, and military muscle. Mariana Mazzucato shows the state is the engine of innovation, not some meddling uncle at the feast. Your “real capitalism” is an immaculate conception — very convenient, because it can never be sullied by actual history.
Property, Liberty, Life
You equate property with liberty. If I own my house, my tools, and my bright ideas, I’m free. But property is not a divine right; it’s a social contract backed by force. Try squatting in someone’s “private property” and see how quickly the police arrive. Erich Fromm nailed it: capitalism gives us “freedom from” interference, but rarely “freedom to” realise our potential. People may formally “own” things, but they’re still chained to debt, low wages, and jobs that drain the soul faster than a tax inspector in January.
The Bakery Without Permits
You wheel out a cheery baker who just wants to open shop without pesky permits. Lovely image. Except history tells us unregulated food industries poisoned milk, stretched bread with chalk, and locked children in flour mills. Those “endless fees” are usually fire codes, hygiene standards, and labour protections — you know, the boring stuff that stops your croissant coming with a side order of typhoid.
Government as Night-Watchman
Your government does nothing but police, prisons, the military, and courts. A sort of bouncer with a nightstick. Sounds neat until you face climate change, pandemics, or financial crashes. Try taking ExxonMobil to court single-handedly for global warming. Rand’s night-watchman state would be asleep in the chair while the house burned down.
Contracts and Power
You say contracts are fine unless they violate rights. Noble sentiment. But who defines rights? In reality, it’s the powerful. A “free” contract between Amazon and a zero-hours worker is about as free as a fox negotiating with the farmer. Consent in unequal conditions isn’t freedom — it’s coercion in a suit and tie.
No Taxes, Just Voluntarism
Here’s the utopian bit: no taxes. Schools, science, and libraries are funded by voluntary donations, raffles, and good vibes. I admire the optimism, but history suggests otherwise. Nobody volunteers to build sewage systems or universal healthcare at scale. Without taxation, you don’t get freedom; you get potholes, cholera, and billionaires with bigger yachts.
The Capitalist Daydream
This is where you really go full Disneyland. Everyone owns their home, food is dirt cheap, roads are perfect, and jobs are deeply fulfilling. Even a modest income buys abundance. Honestly, it reads like an Ikea catalogue written by Walt Disney after a heavy night on the gin. Real capitalism looks different: unaffordable housing, wage stagnation, and inequality so baked in it makes sourdough blush. Graham Scambler calls it the “class/command dynamic” — a polite way of saying the rich call the shots while the rest of us make do.
The Unknown Ideal
Finally, you retreat to Rand’s favourite hiding place: true capitalism has never existed. This is the theological move. Every failure — sweatshops, child labour, the 2008 crash — can be brushed aside as “not the real thing.” That’s not analysis; it’s capitalism as religion, complete with saints, sinners, and a paradise deferred.
The Human Self Problem
Underneath all this is your faith in the liberal human self: a rational, free, sovereign chooser. Trouble is, neuroscience (Robert Sapolsky) shows free will is an illusion. Our choices are shaped by genes, hormones, and environment. Sociology piles on: class, race, and gender shape our lives long before we “choose” anything. The Randian self — master of its fate — is a nice bedtime story, but reality is messier.
Your essay is tidy, hopeful, and utopian. But it’s a fantasy. What you call “freedom” is really the freedom of the powerful to dominate. If you want a humane society, you don’t get it through Rand’s unicorn. You get it through solidarity, collective provision, and a recognition that we’re all tangled up in one another’s lives — whether we like it or not.