A new way. :)

I'm back after more than a year away! I've been reflecting on how to make managing this blog easier, and an idea struck me: "VIDEO POSTS!" So, please stay tuned as I plan to share straightforward economic lessons on video. Thanks, everyone! 

Capitalism's quiet victory overshadowed by government,

Capitalism isn't the reason a coke bottle costs $3 today. Capitalism is the reason a coke bottle cost only 5 cents in the old days. Government is the reason for that price raise.

Its all about that competition! 🙂

Capitalism isn't just about making money. It's also about competition. When lots of people are trying to sell the same thing, they have to work hard to make their product or service better than everyone else's. This means that consumers get better products and services at lower prices.

Capitalism is heroic.

Thanks for reading my blog! - Josh Mathes

What's at stake in an economy,

George Osborne, a British politician said it best :

George Osborne 

"There are those who are trying to create an anti-business culture in Britain - and we have to stop them. At stake are not pay packages for a few but jobs and prosperity for the many." 
                                                        
                     Remember what's at stake!

Where are the jobs?

In a good economy and in a bad economy people seldom think about all the jobs that do exist. If you are in a restaurant and asked to name some jobs around town, you probably would say the waiters, cooks, and janitors. Those jobs can be seen right inside the restaurant and so they are known about.
But wait until you go to grab a straw and some napkins , do you think about jobs then? No. Yet a truck driver has a job to bring those straws and napkins to the restaurant. Also if a oven or refrigerator breaks, a repair man is called to fix it and his job also exists.

In Capitalism there is the seen and unseen. In the restaurant the customers benefit from customer service that can be seen as well as deliveries made to the restaurant that the customer doesn't see.
And the beauty of Capitalism is that all those things happen without a single person or politician knowing how to make a perfect restaurant . Because under Capitalism the truck driver wants money so he delivers utensils to the restaurant, the server needs money so he goes to work there, and the janitor wants to make money so he shows up to clean the place.

In their quest for capital (money) they all make the restaurant run smoothly with no instruction from a Government bureaucrat. Think about that, it's fun learning Capitalism.

A lesson in wealth

Let's say a child with wealthy parents has expensive toys like an iPad, a new laptop, and a big screen TV. And lets say a child with parents who aren't wealthy has inexpensive toys like dolls, toy cars, and a coloring book.

Now, switch the toys. Now the poor child has expensive toys. Will he become rich now? Will he be able to purchase expensive things from now on? No. Why? Because the rich child already had wealth in his family and the expensive gifts were just symptoms of that wealth. Because the parents created wealth, they were able to enjoy pleasing their child with nice gifts.

We have politicians today that want to use symptoms of wealth (Like expensive schools, nice housing, and nice cell phones) to help the poor become wealthy. And just like the child who is poor, people are given things that are symptoms of wealth but not wealth itself. So we can expect that many of those people who receive those goodies wont be lifted out of poverty.

Can cost exist without our money?

 Did you know when we have a steady supply of money as well as times when bad luck takes all our money, we STILL have costs. And every night and every day we will continue to pay costs even if we lose every penny of our money. This life gives us time for productive work as well as time for leisure and in both cases you are paying costs.

So how do we pay costs every day? With decision making. Right now you are paying a cost for reading this blog. The cost is whatever you could be doing instead of reading the blog. Because you are sacrificing that other activity in order to read this blog. So to see economics teach you something about life, go into each day reminding yourself of the costs you are willing to pay with your decision making and you'll begin to think about economics more often and how fun it is to learn!

I'm still here folks,

Hey everyone and if you have chosen to wait on me all this time I thank you. I had so much occur in my life in the last 10 years that I lost my passion for teaching Capitalism. But I am going to start again on this blog and working on a podcast too that you can listen to on this website. Let us do this together and learn in interesting ways how fun economics 101 is!

Prosperity is not free,

The Anti-Capitalists believe Capitalism prevents prosperity. But what they fail to understand is that prosperity is not free; it takes work to create it. And if you limit freedom that Capitalist businesses have over their own money, they will not participate in losing that freedom by creating businesses for the Government to put limits on. And when those businesses are never created, the jobs that they would have provided are ALSO not created. With a lack of creation, comes a lack of prosperity.

If they only knew...

A person who says they're Socialist is fooling himself. He thinks like a Capitalist when his mind isn't alert; here's an interesting example:

A murderer can kill someone by forcing a spoon down their throat just as sure as he can murder them with a gun. But why don't we hear on the news about "spoon chokers" instead of "shooters" and "bombers"?
The answer's simple: Too much time, strength, and risk (of escaping the police) is involved in choking someone with a spoon. Pulling a trigger that sends a bullet through a victim's heart is certain to kill fast, allow time for escape, and makes the murderer accomplish his job faster.
Thus I leave you with this: How many Socialists ever spend time dumbfounded as to why the evening news isn't telling us every night about the latest "spoon choker"? ZERO! They KNOW that to "increase your costs" (like the spoon choker) and thus ensure failure to accomplish your job is stupid. If only Socialists realized that, they agree with Capitalism when they're not aware of it...

That's the Way the Ball Bounces

If you ever threw a basketball into a basketball goal or a wad of paper into a trash can, you've learned an easy concept. The CLOSER you are to the goal, the EASIER it is to hit your target. The basketball has value in the game but without hitting the basket there is no need in it's value. If you are VERY FAR from the goal having the ball is not much of an advantage.
Government handouts sometimes give money to people who's minds are FAR AWAY from understanding how to invest the money, save it, or use it wisely. So the government check they receive isn't really giving them an advantage. Its like giving a player the basketball while he is far away from the goal.

The Invisible Laws of Economics,

You probably know by now that economics involves the law of supply and demand. And nature involves the law of gravity. Such laws are not tangible; you can't hold them in your hands; they involve a reality that you can't physically see. Seeing something is simple as looking at it; understanding how things work takes a bit of thinking and work on our part. Likewise economics can't be understood simply by seeing speeches by politicians mentioning the poor, the middle class, the wealthy, and the working class.

Away from the politicians we go about our daily lives listening to music, talking to people, and driving our cars etc.But during our day we avoid stress wherever we can; we know the songs that make us feel better, we know how to behave to avoid a fight or argument, we know the shortcuts to take as we drive home and all the other things that help us get through the day feeling as good as we can.

Doing such things is practicing economic decisions; the cost of fighting, getting home late, and hearing a sad song is a huge amount of stress. So you take shortcuts and avoid problems to avoid those daily costs. Hence you have a easier day.

Mr. Government can't be avoided and he fights Mr. Private Industry everyday. Since Mr. Private Industry needs to avoid Mr. Government for his own peace of mind, he finds ways to avoid him. Like taking his business to another country!

Now you know how invisible economic laws are; yet their impact is enormous to our lives. So don't let this lesson about costs be overshadowed by a politicians speech!

Laziness/ enemy of Capitalism

Contrary to popular belief it's not consumer spending that produces a healthy economy. What does? Productive work. Why because until the farmer plants the seed, until the taxi driver picks up a passenger, until the butcher cuts the meat, NOTHING happens. No ability to "move" an economy that can't survive if it stays still, leads to a failed economy. It's not "helping the poor" that's the highest virtue. What is the highest virtue? PRODUCTIVE WORK!

Freedom to Move = Free Enterprise

Regardless of your age, pause for a moment and think of your body now and how it differs from the body you had at birth. At one time you couldn't walk; as a teenager you may have been too short to reach for things on a tall shelf. But nature handles those problems: you learn to talk, your body grows, etc.

We all die because Mother Nature never loses her freedom to move forward to accomplish her desired end. We need the same freedom Mother Nature has: 'Freedom to Move' (without government interference). Mother Nature shows us when there's nothing in the way to stop something from advancing the desired goal is accomplished.

Capitalism's (Free Enterprise) desire is freedom. Therefore in a society that desires freedom as its end result, 'Freedom to Move' (without government interference) has to exist.

Freedom with a name change.

Capitalism since day one has been given a bad reputation. When the word is used people often think of words like 'greed' or 'wealth'. So when polls have been done asking people's opinion of capitalism, over half of Americans support it in the 60% range. But when the words 'free enterprise' are used as much as 80% or more of Americans support it. Capitalism is the freedom to choose. Not just freedom to do smart things, but freedom to do unwise things. Anti-capitalists often have sympathy for the individuals who put theirself in a bad situation due to their unwise decisions, and thus they dislike the freedom that those unwise people had. In doing so they are disliking Capitalism.

I'm back!

I'm back ladies and gentleman! Sorry for the delay but I just now was able to return and you all can look forward to many more good posts coming soon. Economics 101 is back!

Maybe we can make the anti-capitalists happy after all,

Anti-Capitalists are not exactly for helping the poor. They are hoping for the rich people to fall to the level of the poor. Anti-Capitalism isn't helping the poor it is all about hating the rich. The same rich that provide jobs all around America.

Listen to the lyrics in the song "Two Dozen Roses" by Shenandoah:

"If I could cry a little harder and get a little less sleep at night.......would it change your mind?"

If all of us Capitalists suffered more maybe the Anti-Capitalists would like us more.

Emotion gouging

All the politicians in Washington recently talked about gas companies gouging the public with high prices. So why did the gas companies raise their prices? Because...........they didn't want people to buy so much gas that a gas shortage would happen. But out of fear of being called a price gouger they kept the prices low. As a result many stations ran out of gas and guess what......the same people who complained about gouging then had no gas to buy! The politicians used the emotions of people around the country in order to push their agenda; it resulted in worsening an already bad situation.