Capitalism Attacked
by Dr. Doug Cardell
This May 2023, the Colorado Education Association (CEA), the state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA) and Colorado's largest teachers' union, under the banner pictured above, passed a resolution condemning capitalism. It says, "CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources. Capitalism is in opposition to fully addressing systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy, (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality." There is so much wrong and erroneous in this statement it is hard to know where to begin. Perhaps the most severe wrong is educators declaring extreme political bias. As an educator for over thirty years, I know the power teachers can exert on young minds and that teachers must never use that power to influence students' views. In The Road Ahead, Bill Gates used my team as an example of creating a curriculum that develops thinking skills rather than teaching students what to think. It's best if students cannot identify a teacher's political or socio-economic views, but openly endorsing one world view at the expense of others is abuse of power. The CEA's indictment of capitalism betrays a frightening ignorance of what capitalism is and how it operates. Moreover, this ignorance is particularly striking in that it comes from teachers, who should be most against ignorance. In a previous article, How Does Capitalism Work? I explained capitalism in general, but this article will address the errors and claims in the CEA statement. The first misconception encountered in the statement is that capitalism requires exploitation. On the contrary, capitalism only requires people willing to invest capital to create enterprises that serve the needs and wants of others. Capitalism has no power over anyone or anything and is therefore incapable of exploitation. Exploitation requires the power to force or coerce. Teachers have that power; capitalism does not. The first exploited class the CEA lists are children. Exploitation requires power, so who holds control over children? The only legitimate sources of authority are parents, teachers, the school system, and various governments. There are also illegitimate forces like bullies and criminals. If parents exploit children, they are subject to criminal charges. There are some limits on teachers exploiting children, but in most jurisdictions, there are no limits on exploitation by belief coercion. School systems are subject to even fewer restrictions than individual teachers. Government is, of course, free to exploit anyone it elects to, including children. If the CEA is concerned about the exploitation of children, an investment in a mirror is warranted since CEA members are the most proximal source with the power to do so. The second item on their list is public schools. Again, exploitation requires power. Capitalism has no control over public schools whatsoever. So where does the power over public schools lie? The only entities that can exert control over public schools are governing boards, unions like the CEA, and various governments. Once again, CEA is trying to deny the power it holds and attribute the misuse of power to capitalism, which has no control of any kind over schools. The third item on the CEA's list is land. Yet again, we must ask, who has the power to control land? Property owners, HOAs, and governments. Capitalism as a system has no control over land; however, capitalists may be property owners that can control the land they own within the limits prescribed by law. Since governments set those limits, any complaints of exploitation by property owners should be directed to the appropriate government. The fourth item on the list is labor. Who holds the power over labor? Since the CEA is a union in a state without a right-to-work law, it seems they have control over their workers. In addition, since they are public employees, their members are not employed by private businesses of any kind and are unaffected by private capital investment. Therefore, only the union, the governing board, and the relevant governments have the power to exploit labor. The fifth list item is resources. This item is meaningless since it does not specify the resources or ownership. Everyone has power over some resources and no control over others. Businesses can control their resources, and the government can limit any control over any resource. As a system, capitalism has no control of any resource and, therefore, no means of exploitation. The second sentence in the CEA's resolution lists things they believe capitalism opposes addressing. However, they fail to understand that capitalism is an economic system with no mechanism for favoring or opposing anything. Moreover, individual investors of capital, the capitalists, include most of the United States population. How does this population feel about the issues CEA lists? Polling indicates pluralities question the existence of systemic racism, and those that do believe it exists believe that businesses are by far the institutions most likely to solve the problem and governments the least likely. The CEA lists climate change as something that capitalism opposes addressing, but a large majority of capitalists, the stockholders, favor taking steps to address climate change. They list patriarchy as not solved by capitalism, but women are almost as invested in markets as men and perform better. They also believe that capitalism does nothing to fix educational inequality. Still, they are the teachers and the most significant component of the system, and it seems that would be primarily their responsibility. Furthermore, the disparity between white students and students of color in Denver Public Schools is substantial. The CEA's candidates have complete control of the local governing board. While 70% of white students score above grade level on the statewide literacy test, only 25% of black and Hispanic students do so. White students are getting three times the education of students of color. Is that the educational equality they seek? Finally, they say that capitalism does not fully address income inequality. They fail to recognize that income inequality is far worse in socialist countries like North Korea and Venezuela. According to the World Bank, the United States GINI income index, a measure of income inequality, in 2020, the last year calculated, was 39.7, the lowest for the U.S. since 1992. But, more importantly, the U.S. index of 39.7 is very close to the world average of 37.8 and well within the average range. The core of capitalism is economic freedom and private property rights. Capitalism has rescued billions of people from poverty and raised living standards far beyond anything our ancestors imagined. The free market and true, uncorrupted capitalism are almost miraculous in that the spontaneous order created by the combination of individual choices that make up the free market can order an economy with no organized direction and do so in the best interests of the citizenry. No other economic system has ever provided greater good to more people. Capitalism's failures result from corruption, which is primarily a problem of government action to advantage some over others or government inaction to enforce a level, competitive marketplace. I'll write an article on income inequality in greater detail soon; keep an eye out for it. In addition, capitalism not only leads to prosperity but also to peace. Peace benefits children, public schools, land, labor, and resources, the very things the CEA claims capitalism exploits. This increase in stability is because capitalist countries don't go to war with each other. In fact, there has never been a war between two or more large, well-established free-market capitalist democracies. They only go to war against fascist-socialist dictatorships who make war against each other as well as free-market democracies. In conclusion, the position of the CEA is a position that should cause all supporting members to have their teaching credentials revoked. Socialism is their religion, and they are blatantly violating the separation of church and state. It is time to recognize that religion does not require a deity. Deeply held world views are religious, whether based on a supreme being or not. Imposing those kinds of beliefs on young minds is unconstitutional and immoral. The CEA is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law, and Colorado must remove the CEA as a group allowed to represent teachers.
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Responses
These people are sick. They shouldn't even be anywhere near our children.