The Anti-capitalistic Mentality

1. Capitalism Empowers the Common Man as Sovereign Consumer

On the market of a capitalistic society the common man is the sovereign consumer whose buying or abstention from buying ultimately determines what should be produced and in what quantity and quality.

Mass production for masses. Capitalism's defining feature is mass production aimed at serving the needs and desires of the general population. This system elevates the "common man" from historical roles as serfs or paupers to the position of the ultimate decision-maker in the economy. Businesses succeed only by catering effectively and affordably to the demands of this vast consumer base.

Consumers hold power. In this market democracy, every purchase is a "vote" determining which businesses thrive and which fail. Wealth is acquired and maintained by those who best satisfy consumer wants. This dynamic ensures that control over production means is a social function, constantly subject to the approval or disapproval of the buying public.

Freedom through choice. This economic structure provides individuals with a form of freedom: the ability to shape their lives by choosing what to buy and consume, rather than being dictated by a central authority. While natural scarcity and physical limitations exist, the market system minimizes restrictions imposed by other people's coercion, allowing individuals significant discretion over their economic fate.

2. Upward Mobility Under Capitalism Breeds Resentment from Frustrated Ambition

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.

Meritocracy reveals inequality. Unlike status societies where one's position is fixed by birth, capitalism bases success on individual merit and contribution to others' well-being. This means that those who don't achieve their ambitions know their failure is due to their own perceived shortcomings, not external caste systems. This self-awareness can be deeply humiliating.

Comparing oneself to others. Individuals constantly see peers who started from similar points but achieved greater success. This constant comparison fuels feelings of inferiority and envy. The knowledge that others succeeded where they failed leads to internal conflict and a search for external blame.

Finding a scapegoat. To cope with frustrated ambition and protect their self-esteem, individuals often blame the capitalist system itself. They rationalize that success is due to dishonesty or exploitation, while their own failure is a result of their virtue and integrity in a corrupt system. Anti-capitalism becomes a psychological defense mechanism against acknowledging personal limitations.

3. Intellectuals Often Harbor Deep-Seated Resentment Against Business Success

His passionate dislike of capitalism is a mere blind for his hatred of some successful “colleagues.”

Proximity breeds envy. Intellectuals (doctors, lawyers, professors, artists, writers, etc.) often interact personally with more successful peers in their fields or related ones. Witnessing the greater recognition, prestige, or income of colleagues who may have been classmates or acquaintances intensifies feelings of frustrated ambition.

Professional codes mask competition. While professional ethics promote camaraderie, the underlying reality is intense competition for recognition and success. This hidden rivalry makes the resentment of those who feel outstripped particularly acute, as they must suppress their feelings in social and professional settings.

Targeting the system. Unable to openly express envy towards specific successful individuals, intellectuals often redirect their animosity towards the abstract concept of capitalism. They blame the economic system for unfairly rewarding others while hindering their own "true" merit, using anti-capitalist philosophy as a veiled expression of personal grievance.

4. White-Collar Workers Misunderstand Their Role and Envy Manual Laborers

It makes him furious to notice that many of these manual laborers get higher pay and are more respected than he himself.

** inflated self-perception.** White-collar workers, performing tasks like writing, reading, and communicating, often see themselves as part of the managerial elite, distinct from manual laborers. They overvalue their routine clerical work, believing it requires more intellect and deserves higher status and pay.

Reality of market value. They fail to grasp that their clerical jobs often involve simple, easily trainable routines, while many manual laborers are highly skilled technicians operating complex machinery. The market values skills based on their contribution to production, not perceived intellectual status, leading to higher pay for skilled manual work.

Resentment of peers. Like intellectuals, white-collar workers experience frustration seeing colleagues advance within the office hierarchy while they remain stagnant. They often attribute this advancement to unfairness or manipulation within the capitalist system, reinforcing their anti-capitalist sentiments and their belief that their own "intellectual" work is undervalued.

5. Wealthy Heirs ("Cousins") May Fund Anti-Capitalism Out of Spite

It is a well-known fact that most of the “progressive” magazines and many “progressive” newspapers entirely depend on the subsidies lavishly granted by them.

Estranged from business. In wealthy families, entrepreneurial talent is rarely inherited by all descendants. While one or two manage the family business ("the bosses"), others ("the cousins") live off inherited wealth without understanding its source or maintenance. Raised often with disdain for commerce, they are ignorant of market dynamics.

Family disputes and envy. Cousins often feel entitled to more of the family fortune and resent the bosses who actively manage the business and earn more. Unfamiliar with the effort and risk involved, they suspect they are being cheated, leading to bitter family feuds.

Funding "progressive" causes. To spite the bosses and the system they feel has wronged them, these cousins often become "parlor socialists" or "penthouse Bolsheviks." They use their inherited wealth to fund anti-capitalist publications, research institutes, and political activities, inadvertently supporting movements that would ultimately confiscate their own fortunes.

6. Entertainers Fear Public Whim and Seek False Refuge in Communism

Yet Hollywood and Broadway, the world-famous centers of the entertainment industry, are hotbeds of communism.

Dependence on capricious public. Unlike manufacturers of tangible goods whose demand is relatively stable, entertainers (actors, writers, producers) depend entirely on the fickle tastes and moods of the public. Their success is precarious; fame and fortune can vanish overnight if public interest wanes.

Anxiety and insecurity. This inherent instability and dependence on unpredictable public favor create deep anxiety. They constantly fear being supplanted by newcomers and struggle to find relief from this pervasive insecurity, which is an intrinsic part of the entertainment market.

False hope in communism. Lacking economic understanding, many entertainers are drawn to communism as a perceived solution to their anxieties. They see it as a system promising universal happiness and stability, believing it will eliminate the capricious market forces that govern their careers, without realizing it would eliminate their freedom and high earnings entirely.

7. Anti-Capitalism Stems Primarily from Economic Ignorance

The result of this ignorance is that people ascribe all improvements in economic conditions to the progress of the natural sciences and technology.

Ignoring economic principles. Many people, including intellectuals, lack a fundamental understanding of economics. They see technological progress as an automatic, inevitable force independent of economic systems, failing to recognize the crucial roles of capital accumulation, saving, and entrepreneurial investment.

Misunderstanding capital. They do not grasp that increased productivity is primarily due to more and better tools (capital goods), which are created and maintained through saving and investment. They mistakenly attribute rising living standards solely to the labor of workers or the ingenuity of scientists, ignoring the financial and entrepreneurial framework that makes technological application possible.

Rejecting economic science. Because economic theory often contradicts their preconceived notions and exposes the flaws in socialist or interventionist ideas, many anti-capitalists dismiss economics as abstract or irrelevant. They prefer to rely on flawed intuition, envy, and historical misinterpretations (like Marx's view of productive forces) rather than engage with rigorous economic analysis.

8. Moral Objections to Capitalism Rest on Flawed Notions of Justice and Nature

With regard to the “distribution” of this wealth, it is nonsensical to refer to an allegedly divine or natural principle of justice.

Nature is not bountiful. Anti-capitalist moral arguments often assume nature provides abundance for all, and poverty results from unjust distribution by the rich. This ignores the fundamental reality of scarcity and the fact that wealth is not a gift of nature but is created by human effort, cooperation, saving, and investment.

Wealth creation vs. distribution. The focus should be on creating wealth, not just distributing a fixed amount. Capitalism's "injustice" is often cited regarding income inequality, but this inequality is a byproduct of a system that incentivizes the production of goods and services that benefit the masses, ultimately raising overall living standards.

Blaming the successful. Critics blame capitalists for the poverty in less developed nations, implying the West hoarded natural resources or machines. This ignores that Western prosperity stems from adopting policies that encourage capital accumulation and free enterprise, while poor nations often have policies that hinder both domestic and foreign investment.

9. The Attack on Capitalism is an Attack on Western Liberty

The idea of liberty is and has always been peculiar to the West.

Liberty from state power. Western civilization's history is marked by a struggle to limit government power and protect individual freedom from arbitrary state action. Institutions like representative government, rule of law, and freedom of the press were developed to safeguard this liberty.

Capitalism enables freedom. Economic freedom, provided by the market economy, is the practical foundation of individual liberty. It allows people to choose their profession, compete, and improve their station based on serving others (consumers). Constitutions protect this existing freedom; they don't create it.

Socialism abolishes freedom. Socialism, communism, and planning inherently require government control over all aspects of life, including occupation and production. This eliminates individual choice and makes everyone dependent on the ruling authority, representing a return to the servile state that Western civilization historically fought against.

10. Interventionist Policies Are Not a Middle Ground, But Steps Towards Socialism

Thus the social and economic philosophy of the “progressives” is a plea for socialism and communism.

No mixed economy. Mises argues there is no stable "middle ground" between capitalism (private control) and socialism (public control). Interventionism, where the government interferes in the market (price controls, minimum wages, credit expansion), is a distinct system with its own consequences.

Interventionism's failures. Economic analysis shows that interventionist measures fail to achieve their stated goals and often create new problems (unemployment from minimum wages, shortages from price controls, boom-bust cycles from credit expansion). These failures are then used to argue for more intervention, pushing the system further away from the market.

Marx's view of intervention. Even Marx and Engels saw interventionist measures (like those in the Communist Manifesto, similar to modern welfare state policies) not as a compromise, but as "economically insufficient and untenable" steps that would inevitably lead to full communism by disrupting the existing order. Modern "progressives" advocating intervention are, wittingly or not, promoting the socialist agenda.

11. Literature and Media Propagate Anti-Capitalist Bias Through Misrepresentation

Their fiction is an illustration of the lessons of the anti-capitalistic doctrinaires and collapses with them.

Catering to bias. Authors and media producers, often sharing or catering to the prevailing anti-capitalist sentiment, create works that depict capitalism negatively. They portray the poor as victims of the system and the rich as inherently corrupt exploiters, reinforcing socialist dogmas.

Unveracious portrayals. These works often rely on tendentious misrepresentations rather than accurate depictions of social conditions or business practices. They may describe poverty resulting from lack of capitalism or interventionist failures as inherent capitalist flaws, or depict businessmen succeeding solely through crude swindling, implying consumers are easily duped.

Propaganda, not art. Much "social" or "proletarian" literature serves as propaganda for anti-capitalist ideologies. Its narratives are structured to illustrate pre-determined socialist conclusions, making the works dependent on the validity of those flawed doctrines rather than on genuine artistic insight or realistic portrayal of human experience under capitalism.

12. The Core Conflict is About Economic Systems, Not Wealth Distribution

The great ideological conflict of our age is not a struggle about the distribution of the “national income.”

System choice, not division. The fundamental debate between capitalism and socialism is not about how to divide a fixed pie of wealth. It is about which system of economic organization is more effective at producing wealth and improving living standards for everyone.

Productivity is key. The central question is which system fosters greater productivity of human effort. Capitalism, through capital accumulation, investment, and entrepreneurial innovation, has demonstrably raised productivity and living standards far beyond any previous system or socialist alternative.

Ignoring the evidence. Anti-capitalists often frame the debate as a moral struggle over fairness in distribution, deliberately ignoring or misrepresenting the economic arguments about production and calculation under different systems. They refuse to acknowledge the empirical evidence showing higher living standards in capitalist countries compared to socialist ones.

Last updated: May 13, 2025