I posted this answer:
Looking at the issue from a “get ahead” versus “fall behind” perspective is the wrong way to think about it. Life is not a race, where everyone must “keep up.” Human society is not an ant colony or bee hive or herd of buffalo, but an association of individuals. In a capitalist society, the association is built on voluntarism rather than force.
The great danger of any society is restrictions on individual flourishing, not holding anyone back. “Capitalistic” means freedom based on individual rights. One of the great moral virtues of capitalism is that no one is stopped from flourishing according to her ability, ambition, personal values, and other individual factors.
As to disability, no social system has ever provided more opportunity for the disabled to survive and even flourish than capitalism. Capitalism—free minds, free markets, and economic success-through-trade—fosters technological and industrial progress, which requires less and less physical labor and more and more intellectual labor—a trend that definitely favors the physically disabled. The freedom of business and entrepreneurialism to turn scientific knowledge and inventive ideas into useful products and services leads to prosthetics, medications, and workplace tools that enable people of limited abilities to become productive. The prosperity that capitalistic society enables also leads to increasing amounts of investable savings in the hands of productive individuals, the very “surplus” wealth from which philanthropy and charity are built.
I can’t imagine a better society for people with disabilities, not to mention the elderly, than a free capitalist society.
Related Reading:
The Poor, Disabled, and Helpless Under Capitalism--Craig Biddle
Prosthetics Violinist--Thanks to Courage and Capitalism
Serviceman Who Lost Leg Carries Woman Across Finish Line—Thanks to Prosthetics Industry
Koni Dole: Loses a Leg, Shines in Football Anyway
Humans Are Building Better Versions of Themselves—Mike
Riggs for REASON
No comments:
Post a Comment