Well summer is here and with it the afternoon storms and yesterday the backyard of our new home was flooded. It is quite amazing to look out upon the garden some 100 ft long by 30ft wide and see the lawn completely submersed in 5 inches of water. It is also worrisome from the point of view that the rain stopped just as the water was only a quarter of an inch short of coming in at the glass sliding doors! What has this got to do with the goodness of people and capitalism?
Let me explain: Two marvelous things happened. The first, the inherent goodness of people. One of our new neighbors suddenly came banging on the door to rescue us with a spare submersible pump and lots of help and advice. Neighbors caring for neighbors. People willing to help others in time of need.
The second marvelous thing that happened is capitalism. Without capitalism motivating people to innovation in order to satisfy their drive and thereby realizing their God-given inner voices and talent, things like the submersible pump would never have been invented. Without that pump my yard would still have been swimming in water the following day when the next storm hit us and my house would surely have been flooded inside.
The capitalist, the submersible pump man, had had the idea and spent many hours of sweat and tears perfecting it. He may have left his 9-5 job with a steady income, mortgaged his home, used his savings or taken on a loan or all of the above, in order to get the product in the store. He would have met all these challenges without any guarantees that the public at large would even embrace, what he believed, was a great product. He may have had sleepless nights wondering if he had done the right thing in believing in himself, his creation and his ambition.
Then, as his company grew and thrived, his risks grew too. He had to take on employees and worries about meeting payroll, company insurance and bigger loans to cover the expansion of premises and machinery. When the company finally became profitable, his reward also finally came and he was able to pay himself substantially. Yes the rewards were substantial because no matter how much money he may make, the risk of losing it all rests squarely on his shoulders. On his judgment; on his management, on his decisions.
The employees help him build his business by fitting their individual puzzle piece into its slot each day before going home at 5 and he pays them for their day's work but he goes home each day thinking about how all the pieces fit into the puzzle and most of all, how to keep all the pieces locked together and even if he goes home at 5 too, which is rare, his mind is with the puzzle pieces 24/7.
I know these things. I ran a business with my husband for 20 years. I lost a business. I also brought an idea to market that took me years to perfect. I know the joy and the agony.
So on this day when my garden flooded I reflected on these things. The motivation of the individual to help his neighbor and the individual who helps his neighbor through his drive to achieve as a capitalist. Thank you both for being good Samaritans. Without both of you we are so much less of a society.
Oh yes, and one more thing, there are bad neighbors and bad capitalists but fortunately the good ones far outnumber the bad ones and as we don't condemn the whole neighborhood for one bad neighbor, we should not condemn all capitalists because of some bad ones! That's just common sense to me.
