Rick Kelo Looks At the Dislike of Capitalism

Famous 20th century Classic Liberal thinker Ludwig von Mises considered why so many people are envious of the wealthy:

What makes many feel unhappy under capitalism is the fact that capitalism grants to each the opportunity to attain the most desirable positions which, of course, can only be attained by a few. Whatever a man may have gained for himself, it is mostly a mere fraction of what his ambition has impelled him to win. There are always before his eyes people who have succeeded where he failed. There are fellows who have outstripped him and against whom he nurtures, in his subconsciousness, inferiority complexes.

Such is the attitude of the tramp against the man with a regular job, the factory hand against the foreman, the executive against the vice-president, the vice-president against the company’s president, the man who is worth three hundred thousand dollars against the millionaire and so on.

~ Ludwig von Mises, The Anti-Capitalist Mentality

Rick Kelo, an economist and social thinker who often follows in the Misesian tradition agrees.  To Kelo the topic is really about a basic economic condition: scarcity.

"Mankind is forever stuck in a mismatch," says Kelo.  "The power of our imaginations give us unlimited wants and desires, but we don't exist in our imaginations.  In the physical world around us resources are limited," he points out.  "If we use corn to make the corn syrup that goes into soda then we can't use it to make popcorn," Richard Kelo explains.

The irony is that Americans in the 21st century enjoy the highest standard of living of anyone in all of human history.  All of which has been achieved by the productive engine unleashed by capitalism.

Rick A Kelo