I posted this answer:
Capitalism doesn’t “say” you have to work. Work is Nature’s ultimatum. Almost nothing of what humans need, let alone want—from basic life necessities like food, clean water, clothing, and shelter to healthcare, energy, and transportation and on up to whatever one deems a “necessity” to flourish and achieve happiness—occurs freely in nature. They must be created by productive human labor. All Nature “provides” are the basic raw materials.
Capitalism merely recognizes the realities of nature by leaving each person free to work and trade to satisfy his needs and wants, while protecting him and his property from thugs who would take it. Capitalism allows no predators to “freely” take from those who work. In a free society, these are criminals. The only legitimate method of satisfying your needs and wants is to create them yourself, or work for money to pay others who produce them. Yes, you must work and pay. Once you leave childhood, no one owes you these things, and supporting a government that “provides” you these goods is merely evading the fact that others must be forced to provide them through forced redistribution of their wealth. Capitalism institutionalizes this legitimate method, and only this voluntary method.
Freedom is not defined as not having to work for your necessities. Freedom is defined as the unfettered ability to work and keep the product of your labor, from necessities on up, without coercive interference from others, including your rulers. Your “right to basic life necessities” does not mean the right to the product of others’ labor. It means the right to keep what, if anything, you have earned. Capitalism protects that individual right to productive self-support, and any earnings thereof, but does not include a guarantee that you will earn it. No government can legitimately make that guarantee.
Capitalism recognizes these realities of man’s nature. It is reality oriented, not a utopian scheme that guarantees, somehow, “the right to basic life necessities.” There is no such right. The only way a “right” of that kind can be fulfilled is by enslaving productive people, which requires some kind of criminal activity; or, on a societal level, some form of communistic totalitarianism, as history clearly shows. “Freedom from work” is not genuine freedom. Such freedom doesn’t exist, except in death. Genuine freedom is liberation from aggressive physical force and fraud. Capitalism establishes a limited government that polices society and markets against aggressive force and fraud, while protecting individual rights of all to their life, liberty, and property. Hence, Capitalism is the only moral social system.
I covered this subject more extensively in QUORA: ‘Is capitalism voluntary?’
* [Quora is a social media website founded by two former Facebook employees. According to Wikipedia:
Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by its community of users. The company was founded in June 2009, and the website was made available to the public on June 21, 2010.[3]Quora aggregates questions and answers to topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users' answers.[4]
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Related Reading:
Don't Equate the Essence of Socialism to Capitalism
QUORA: ‘Why should capitalists be allowed to continually reap the benefits of others' labor?’
Quora: ‘Is capitalism based on the exploitation of others?’
Capitalism by George Reisman
The Capitalist Manifesto by Andrew Bernstein
What is Capitalism? by Ayn Rand
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