With the advent of the presidential elections, and a major candidate (Bernie Sanders) claiming to be “democratic socialist,” the topic of my first article will be capitalism and the democratic socialist view on it. I am of the belief that capitalism is the only proven way a society can exist and progress. capitalism is the belief that people and corporations need to compete to advance in economical standing. Capitalism is a better choice because it promotes competition and hard work, increases the strength of our economy, and allows every person to find success based off their work.

Before elaborating on this, however, I decided to examine what democratic socialism is. To accomplish this, I visited the Democratic Socialists of America website to define this. According to that source, “Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few.” They further elaborated on this by stating that they believe large corporations should be controlled or moderated to the government to redistribute wealth through the economy. They further claim that this would decrease poverty, at the obvious cost of some loss of wealth in the upper class. They would like to impose higher taxes on certain groups and provide more government services. With this rough idea of democratic socialism in mind, it's time to move on to the more specific positions of capitalism and why democratic socialism is not a good alternative.

Capitalism is a proven motivator. People intrinsically understand that basic needs exist that every first-world country citizen has, these being food, shelter, amenities, insurance, retirement, and the likes. The only way to get these reliably in a conservative capitalist country is to work. Humans don't usually shoot for only the bare minimum, though. Those who want to increase their wealth work harder than the rest, competing for better jobs and sacrificing to better support themselves. This creates a self-driven economy where every person, as well as companies on a larger scale, try to outdo each other. Obviously, this creates progress and more wealth in a society, something every country strives for. Some of our biggest technological advancements, including the personal computer, were caused by competition in a capitalist enviroment. Unlike communism, democratic socialists do not believe in a fixed wage or entirely government-run business, but believe that instead of competition, wealth should be redistributed via government programs and taxes. This slowly drains people of their will to compete, because success only increases their taxes and decreases their benefits. This slows economical progression. As a result, countries do not increase in wealth, and as people work less and less the society can even begin to move backwards.

Don't just take my word for it, though! Chile is the most free economy in Latin America. 11% of the population is below the poverty line, and the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita is $17,400 and rising. GDP per capita is basically the worth of a countries economy divided by the number of inhabitants. Compare this to the statistics of Chile's next door neighbor Venezuela, a known socialist country and the least free economy in Latin America, and a highly defined trend will appear. Venezuela has 28% of the population under the poverty line, over twice that of Chile. They also have a GDP per capita of only $12,600, and worse yet that value is stagnant. These facts alone show how harmful socialism is to a society.

In closing, capitalism is the only current viable way to run a country. Maybe some day a brilliant person will find a way to encourage competition while still redistributing wealth, but human nature as of today dictates that the only way to get people to work is dangling the metaphorical “carrot on a stick.” Capatalism provides this by enforcing a principle dating back to Jamestown, Virginia: “he who does not work, neither shall he eat.”