DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM

PREFACE 

The young boy on the cover pondering beauty is my grandson, Kelly.  This book is dedicated to Kelly and my other grandchildren, Jenner, Nash, Abigail, Patrick, and Adam.  I want them to grow up in a world where they can reach their full potential and contribute to a harmonious whole.

            My grandchildren will learn from family, team sports, school bands, medical research teams, and other group efforts that their individual development depends on hard work and cooperation.  They will learn that when each contributes strength to the group, and each benefits from the strengths of others, performance is improved and life is more fun.  I hope that their schools address this dual development of individual attainment and social cooperation. 

 In this book about democracy and capitalism, I examine the economic-political system in which all gain as each gains through participation, cooperation, trust, and sharing.  With these motivations, and the private property and competition of capitalism, material scarcity can be eliminated and the quality of lives improved.  I propose democratic capitalism as the rational alternative to the folly and violence that fills human history, in which the only animal capable of reason has killed more of its own species than any other creature has done.  Animosities and violence will gradually end when educated citizens and trained leaders structure human affairs through the economic common purpose that improves all lives.

 It is satisfying to realize that Jenner, Nash, Kelly, Abigail, and Patrick will be the first generation to live in an interconnected world based on freedoms.  Convergence of people and commerce in the Information Age will transcend the flaws of traditional institutions.  Wars and material scarcity will disappear in a freedom-based, unified world where the simple idea of individual development in a harmonious whole prevails.  Citizens of this interdependent world will demand the education and good health necessary to make human freedoms universal.  Information Age technology is making education of the world possible. With the non-freedoms eliminated, my grandchildren's children and their grandchildren will live in a steadily improving world.

 This book identifies the significant parts, their connections, and the action necessary for society to benefit.  My proposed rational order is based on my experience combined with the wisdom of thinkers from many disciplines.  My own practice of democratic capitalism provided me a confident view of the latent power of people that could be released when they were free to develop and contribute.  My studies found the wisdom of many specifying how to organize human affairs to give all people their best chance.