Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

The beauty and secrets of capitalism

By Paul Dvorak | August 30, 2012

Paul DvorakCapitalism takes a lot of knocks in an economic downturn because detractors credit the resulting pain to the system. They ignore that well meaning government decrees are usually the root cause of many problems. When people feel disadvantaged, they easily ignore the system’s tremendous upside.

George Gilder is not one to ignore the distinct and rare advantage of capitalism. He’s one of America’s clearest thinkers and shows it in a recent article from the National Review: Unleash the mind, August 13, 2012, tinyurl.com/unleashthemind.  In it, Gilder shines a light on modern capitalism revealing the secrets of why it works so well when other economic systems do not.

The essay is unusual because every sentence holds a clear and striking idea. Every thought is a gem. Take the first two sentences for example: “America’s wealth is not an inventory of goods; it is an organic entity, a fragile pulsing fabric of ideas, expectations, loyalties, moral commitments, visions. To vivisect it for redistribution is to kill it.”

Like stones in a monument, each idea builds on the previous to create a stunning display. During the construction, he reveals a secret that opponents must be afraid to acknowledge: You can only create riches by fulfilling other people. Actually, he says, “Most of America’s leading entrepreneurs are allowed to keep their wealth only as long as they invest it in others.”

And for people who build a business around an idea, he has good words. “All progress comes from the creative minority. Under capitalism, wealth is less a stock of goods than a flow of ideas, the defining characteristic of which is surprise. If it were not surprising, we could plan it, and socialism would work.”

Although you know this already, he makes it clear that the economy is not a zero-sum game as some suggest. Someone winning does not mean someone must lose. The pie can grow larger. If you were awake in grade school history, you would know that.

These comments just scratch the surface of a superb essay. Read it, and then read it a second time and be surprised all over again.

–Paul Dvorak

Editor


Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tagged With: Blog, capitalism
 

About The Author

Paul Dvorak

Comments

  1. GK says

    August 30, 2012 at 10:23 pm

    And that is why China is growing while America is stagnating? More to the point the options are not capitalism or state run economies. Cooperative economic approaches (and I don’t mean collectivized by the state) can allow a far richer fabric of ideas, expectations, loyalties, moral commitments, visions. Historically such approaches have been thwarted by the interests of those who have concentrations of capital, and the hegemony of ideology both right and left.

    • Paul Dvorak says

      September 11, 2012 at 9:02 am

      GK:

      Thanks for your comments.
      Actually, I have no insight to China’s growth but you can be sure central planning was a reason the Soviet Union failed.

      You’re point about the cooperative economy is well made, but it seems we are headed toward an ever bloated government and central planning. Growth for 2011: 1.7%.

Related Articles Read More >

DTE Energy to buy three new Michigan wind farms
Connecticut seeking input on draft solicitation for offshore wind
Maine establishes three new renewable energy laws
US Wind applauds extension of offshore wind tax credit

Podcasts

Wind Spotlight: Looking back at a year of Thrive with ZF Wind Power
See More >

Windpower Engineering & Development Digital Edition Archive

Digital Edition

Explore the full archive of digital issues of Windpower Engineering & Development, presented in a high-quality, user-friendly format. Access current and past editions, clip, share, and download valuable content from the industry’s leading wind power engineering resource.

Windpower Engineering & Development
  • Wind Articles
  • Solar Power World
  • Subscribe to Windpower Engineering
  • About Us/Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising

Search Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe