This week, news broke that the Colorado Education Association (CEA) — also known as the state’s largest teachers union — came out against capitalism with a resolution claiming that our free market system of economics is incompatible with fighting systemic racism, the patriarchy, educational inequality, and income inequality, amongst other societal ills.If any other left-leaning organization made these claims, it probably wouldn’t be newsworthy. Unfortunately, these claims come from those who educate our children each and every day.The claim that capitalism is incompatible with fighting income inequality, or any form of racism, is based in pure ignorance. Economic freedom and private property rights, which lie at the heart of capitalism, have empowered billions of people to achieve what their ancestors could have only dreamed of.
Is there always more work to do? Of course there is.
Capitalism isn’t perfect, but unlike any other economic system implemented throughout human history, it has pulled millions out of poverty, decimated the scourge of global poverty, brought nations with historical animosity together in the name of economic development, and made our nation, the United States, the example to follow for the rest of the globe.
Capitalism requires little defense. Nearly every advancement of humanity we encounter on a daily basis, from the amazingly powerful computer in our pocket to cures and treatments for otherwise fatal and debilitating diseases stem from a competitive and free system that follows the economic laws of supply and demand rather than the inclinations of central planners.
