QUORA: ‘How does capitalism lead to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few?’

 QUORA: ‘How does capitalism lead to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few?’

I posted this answer:

It doesn’t. Capitalism leads to the opposite result — the spread of incredible wealth to “the masses.” Just travel through any commercial district. They are teeming with outlets full of goods, geared toward the average consumer. Who buys them? The “many.” Just look at your own life. It’s full of stuff produced by people you’ll never meet or will ever meet. Just look at the people around you. Same result.

Capitalism liberates the common man to voluntarily produce, trade, and gain wealth by protecting individual rights. This bannishes force from human relationships by the government protecting us from criminals, fraudsters, and foreign threats. It also protects us from the government becoming the criminal through a proper constitution that limits government power. The result is that wealth by force, fraud, or theft is banned, leaving only wealth by productive work and voluntary trade as the only option. Under Capitalism, wealth is gained by producing something that others value enough to pay you for. A person’s level of income and wealth is thus determined by how much value for how many people he produces. The greatest fortunes are earned by the people who produce the greatest value for the greatest number. But these fortunes of “the few” are held primarily in the form of monetary assets, such as stock, bonds, and savings. The actual wealth—the stuff—is held by consumers.

The Capitalist ideal, which today only exists in a form very diluted by statism, nonetheless led to The Great Enrichment—the explosive rise in the standards of living of the general populations of countries that adopted a decent amount of Capitalist individual liberty, such as rule of law and property rights. When you observe the world objectively, you’ll notice that the wealth spread throughout society in even semi-Capitalist nations dwarfs the combined Capitalist fortunes earned through the building of giant entrepreneurial enterprises like John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, Bill Gates’s Microsoft, Steve Job’s Apple, or Jeff Bazos’s Amazon. Who owns and consumes most of the cars, homes, computers, food, movie tickets, televisions, dishwashers, smart phones, gasoline, and other mass consumer goods? Well, the mass of ordinary people, not the few.

Far from leading to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few, Capitalism is actually the greatest wealth sharing social system -- in fact, the only peaceful wealth sharing system. All other systems are based on cronyism and theft that fosters fortunes by corruption and robbery taken from the many by wealthy aristocrats. Capitalism fosters only fortunes by work and trade—fortunes that raised the living standards of the people as they grew. If you favor ordinary citizens being able to accumulate wealth, then Capitalism is your social system.

Related Reading:

All Earned Wealth, No Matter How Big the Fortune, is Deserved Whether ‘Needed’ or Not

The "Hoarding" By the Rich Fosters Widespread Prosperity

"Trickle-Down Economics": Anti-Capitalists' Insulting Portrayal of the "Common Man"

QUORA *: 'How is capitalism good despite the fact that it creates higher and lower classes?'

QUORA: 'How is becoming a billionaire even possible, chronologically?'

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand