While we concede that capitalism has been good for America in the past, we are concerned with the Republican view of “Capitalism can do not wrong”. It is easy to find examples of how capitalism left un checked can lead to bad results (Microsoft is a current example of this problem). We recognize that Capitalism is cleaver way to allow a nation of very different people to be treated as equal. Capitalism prevents revolution (*1), that is it’s primary advantage in society, beyond that it is just a way of providing people with jobs. The quest for profit cannot be used to solve all of the nations problems. In some instances it is at odds with the problem that needs to be solved. A good example of this is medicine. Do you want the “Profit Potential” of your cure to be part of the evaluation process when you go to the hospital ? Right now it is, from drugs that are not necessary (but very profitable), to procedures that are not done to you because it would cost the health care organization too much, unchecked capitalism is killing Americans left and right. The CNRP believes that health care cannot be a business for this very reason.
Unregulated Capitalism creates a defacto class system, which fly’s in the face of the concept that "All people are created equal". Those who have the ability (either by skill or birthright – like a monarchy), to successfully make a business extremely profitable become part of an upper class in this country. It is easy to see this, when 90% of the countries wealth is held by less that 5% of the population.
Republicans do not see small business as "Real" Capitalism. This is where the CNRP and the Republican party part company on this issue. The CNRP believes that small business is the capitalistic spirit. The ability to run ones own business and be your own boss. However the big businesses who own and run the Republican party have been rolling across the American countryside destroying small businesses and replacing them with large monolithic corporations with accountability to no community. Walmart is just one example of this deterioration of the real capitalist spirit in this country. What is just as alarming is the statistics on single family farms. Soon our entire food supply may be controlled by four or five mega-agro corporations.
Anyone who understands capitalism knows that the rules only work when there is competition (the more the merrier). As an industry reduces the number of participants it becomes a Oligopoly or even worse a Monopoly and the benificial effects of capitalism are gone.
Ultimately capitalism rewards those who’s motivation is monetary. Why is this bad ? Not all compensation is monetary. There are many “feel good” jobs where part of the motivation for doing the jobs is the feeling of doing something good for the community. Since this non monetary motivation does not figure into the capitalistic system we frequently find people who are doing jobs that benefit the community working for wages below the level they could earn if their motivations were purely monetary. Some examples would be Teachers, Nurses, Firefighters, Police, Doctor’s working in free clinics or Lawyers doing pro-bono work. So one must consider what the long term effects of such a system will be. Some people may point out that capitalist give to the community in the form of donations, but in reality that is not true. Capitalist donate to communities to acquire a positive public opinion of their business. The fully expect this positive opinion to translate into more sales and thus more profit. If there were no additional profits there would be no donations. The feel good jobs exist in a completely different environment. Frequently we can find people with these feel good jobs not only making less money than they could make with profit oriented job, but using their own money to improve a program or provide for someone who cannot afford it.
(*1) – Capitalism prevents revolution – As people in a country become dissatisfied they get together and voice their dissatisfaction but they will not act until a leader becomes part of their ranks and motivates them to act. Capitalism prevents the leaders from ever joining the ranks of the dissatisfied by offering anyone with the ability to lead a revolution with the more rewarding opportunity to lead their own company, and in so doing making them one of the satisfied.