Capitalism is not societies benign cure all

Some folks live under the myth that private enterprise, using free market capitalism can be the remedy for all of society’s ills and a magic pill to fill everyone’s needs. In an ideal world where every capitalist balanced the long term needs of society with a generous dose of ethics and magnanimity the utopian formula just might work. Unfortunately human nature many times works in extreme self interest with little regard for the general needs of society, environmental stewardship, or transparent communication about products and services.
I have been a free market capitalist my entire adult life having owned and run businesses that included construction, real estate development, real estate syndication and investment, food service, and now industrial surplus sales and liquidation. My resume includes a summary general education in business law, accounting, and finance as well as engineering and construction. I started my first business when I was fifteen years old repairing appliances, providing plumbing and electrical repairs, and doing general handyman services for many of my neighbors, family, and friends. With over 50 years of business experience I can easily say that my experience includes marketing, putting together investor syndication packages, hiring and managing employees, dealing with many government agencies, borrowing from banks, and doing all the administrative jobs that are necessary to run a business. My message is that I have a very good grasp of what capitalism can achieve as well as its short comings.
When I say that the capitalist does not always have the best interests of society on their “To Do” list, I will cite some concrete examples of where capitalism has fallen short. Now having been a capitalist for five decades my intention is not to totally defame free enterprise or throw the “Baby out with the Bath Water”. I believe that a mixed economic model with regulated capitalism and some government services is best for the overall needs of society. For selfish reasons the staunch elites and moneyed classes will say that the Socialistic delivery of services is a pariah on the nation and we must guard against it at all costs.
Our health care, food, finance, and energy industry delivery systems are prime examples of how minimally regulated capitalism does not serve society well and in many cases is overtly harmful. In today’s society with everyone on information overload and rapidly changing technology it is not realistic or reasonable to expect the average consumer to know the entire strengths and weaknesses of every product and service available. Those people who have the added benefit of a higher education and the economic resources to vet the what vendors are selling have some degree of greater advantage, but are still not in a position to perform thorough due diligence on their own. The old adage, “Caveat Emptor” meaning let the buyer beware is an apathetic free enterprise attitude; but is this insensitive requirement realistic or humanistic?
If we had long term energy policy that could not be squashed or corrupted by big oil or coal, I believe that today we would be a lot less dependent on fossil fuels. If we were a lot more alternative energy independent I believe our need for oil imports and imperialistic intervention in the Middle East would be greatly decreased. Unfortunately fossil fuel producers have tremendous political influence that derails movement away from our dependency on them. The metrics have proven that we are a having a major increase in Global Warming since the beginning of the 20th century when the industrial revolution, expansion of automobile use, and technological development cause a great increase in fossil fuel energy consumption. The fossil fuel producers have hired sophisticated think tanks and PR organizations to try to down play man made Global Warming. Delaying a mitigation solution for curtailing GW and the increase in green house gases is already proving to have a disastrous effect on our planet.
Bechtel Corporation in concert with pressure from the IMF pressured Bolivia to privatize its water utility system, as a result the poor Bolivians water cost tripled and the people had to revolt in desperation. Bechtel fortunately turned the water system back to the people.
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who many capitalists decry as the devil incarnate, in reality has been a savior for his countries people. He has nationalized the predatory oil producers, using the revenues for universal health care, improved housing, better education, and providing improved services to the general population. He enjoys over a 60% popularity rate and is very re-electable. Venezuela under Chavez now grows it own corn and grains, whereas before it was solely dependent on imports from countries such as the US. The bottom line is that with a mixed economy the people are happier and fairing a lot better than they did from totalitarian money lords.
Utility companies such as PG&E charge some of the highest rates. There costs of doing business are shareholder profit distributions, political lobbying costs, taxes, and other expenses that increase their rates to the consumer. Utility districts such as Alameda and Modesto provide lower utility costs to the consumer without subsidy, because they do not have the added expenses of a private utility such PG&E.
China using the long term planning and the mixed economy model seems to be developing very well. Granted, China has human rights and environmental stewardship issues it quickly needs to amend, but they are a picture of the US one hundred years ago when there were little worker rights and industry was totally irresponsible about environmental stewardship.
The pharmaceutical industry is grossly responsible for increased health care costs and marketing products that are unhealthy and sometimes death threatening to people’s health. For example poor mothers in Harlem are encouraged to buy sugar dense Similac baby formula by Abbott Labs, one of the major pharmaceutical companies, instead of breast feeding which has been proven to be much healthier for child development. Those infants ingesting Similac instead of mother breast milk will have a greater degree of obesity sometimes resulting in diabetes and heart disease. Breast milk is also more beneficial for proper brain development. Do we want to have an increased population of learning disabled children and adults? Society will pay for the greed of Abbott Labs dearly with increased health care costs. Doctors are given perks such as free vacations, entertainment tickets, and gourmet restaurant meals in order to encourage and prescribe drugs and products for patients that are destructive and not cost effective. Without proper regulations this capitalistic delivery system for drugs is destructive to society.
The not for profit health care model of the Kaiser Permanente system is out pacing all other private systems. Their quality of care and patient satisfaction has greatly improved in the last ten years and has become a benchmark model for many private for profit systems. The day is coming when the greedy Wall Street system and doctors earning one half million dollars or more per year will be coming to an end. The government needs to subsidize medical education so that we can attract bright medical school candidates who will easily work for $250,000 per year, as doctors do at Kaiser. Private for profit insurance providers and people wanting to go into medicine for big dollars will go by the wayside.
Capitalism without long term planning, reasonable oversight and policing in certain industries such as healthcare, energy, food, transportation, finance, consumer products and services will not properly serve the needs of society. Government absent crony capitalism is an unfortunate ingredient that is necessary to foster and protect the needs of society. Public banks serve the entirety of nation state, while private banks only serve the stockholders. There is plenty of room in our economy for the capitalistic delivery of goods and services, but some essentials such as health care insurance, basic housing, some transportation, utilities, and police and fire protection are best delivered by the quasi private/public sector.