Very well explained. Thank you. Over the past couple of years, I have left many comments along these lines: The 1%s with the help of Milton Friedman, who was probably bought and paid for, have perverted capitalism, and worse they quote Adam Smith out of context. Smith's Wealth of Nations posited that free markets would lead to wealth fairly distributed among the citizens based on their contributions. Smith believed that as a business or industry matured, the innovators' need for profit to award their investments would give way to increases in wages for the workers.

We do not have the free markets that Smith envisioned. We have markets twisted by laws written by lobbyists for large corporations and too-wealthy individuals. Capitalism has been perverted into a Darwinian game of survival at the top of the food chain at the expense of others. As spiritual beings, humans are not supposed to act like animals. So, no, Alexmaids, your father is not a communist. I am a pure capitalist--(after reading your essay Douglas that statement about me may not be true). Our rigged system of capitalism is actually pathologically narcissistic as one succeeds not based upon their intelligence but upon their capacity to manipulate and take advantage of other people.

Globalization has made Smith's view of how capitalism would create wealth for nations impossible. Globalization means chasing cheap labor, which only creates wealth for the stockholders.