In looking at the 2020 presidential candidates, one of the considerations is whether someone is “a capitalist” or “a socialist”. But we might be using the wrong lens for evaluation, because there is a chance that no matter who wins the election, and what kind of economic changes are enacted, capitalism may well be dying of natural causes.

Actual capitalism isn’t inherently bad, but the evolution of capitalism into corporatism is a disaster in all regards, and is hastening the death of capitalism in addition to the underlying trends making basic capitalism unsustainable.

Let’s take a simple example. You and I go into the chair business. You are a great carpenter, and make beautiful, sturdy wooden chairs. I market and sell them. We do well. And then we do TOO well – more people want our chairs than you can build. So, we hire a couple other carpenters and a couple trainees from a vocational program. Things are great until even MORE people want our chairs. We don’t have the cash flow to hire more people, so we issue stock. Not a unicorn IPO, but rather we go to friends and family and ask, basically, for a loan. If they will give us money to build our business, we will repay them as the business grows. They buy our stock, and we pay them dividends. As business owners, we realize that to buy our chairs, we need good trainees to teach as our business goes, and we need roads to deliver them, and infrastructure, so we gladly pay our taxes. We pay our employees well because we need them to be able to afford the chairs they produce. (Go read about Henry Ford’s approach on this.) This is fundamental capitalism, and it’s a win-win.

Here’s where it goes off the rails. A bad monster company, let’s call them Bane-of-our-existence Capital decides to start buying up our stock. They push up the stock price, which is initially good for our friends and family who invested in us….but then they eventually take over, move our manufacturing to a place where they can abuse the humans who make chairs, decrease the quality and hey you’ve got corporatism that is decidedly a disaster for the workers and anyone who buys a now deficient chair. Only Bane-of-our-existence benefits.

So how does that hasten the natural death of capitalism? Well, capitalism depends on having people who buy goods and services. “Capitalism” needs to be a growth industry. And that’s changing since birth rates are decreasing, and the median age of humans on earth is increasing. Some population information here.

How does this affect a chair business? When do you need to buy wooden chairs? When you move into your first apartment, you likely need 2 for that small kitchen table. Then, when you get married and move to a bigger place, you need more chairs for the growing family and the dining room you now have. You know what else you need at these stages of life? Everything – tables and desks and curtains and pots and pans and baby clothes, toys, kid clothes…..the list keeps growing. What do you need when you’re older? To get rid of all the stuff you accumulated over 40+ years of adulthood. (As an aside, ALWAYS shop at my house first….). If we had our initial small chair business, as this happened, we would just stop hiring people as our staff retired over time. But with corporatism, and no growth, the problem is not just employees but all the equipment you’re now using, the plants you’ve built….you need to divest of all of that worldwide to keep those profits coming in. Because remember, in a corporatist society, it’s all about stock value, not the actual value of the company. Read this to see how it affects where you buy your food.

Projections indicated that by 2050, more than 25% of the worldwide population will be over 60. This will not be evenly spread around the globe. The populations of developed countries will be shrinking, and the populations of less developed countries will still be growing. Japan is already dealing with a huge elderly population, as are some European countries, and here in the states, we have Maine, leading the country in the percentage of elderly, with more than 25% of the population being aged 65 or older. The projection is that they will be joined by 15 states by 2026, and 12 more by 2030. Link. Not only do older people buy less stuff, but they have a great need, as they age, especially as they enter their 80’s, for healthcare, aides, and other assistance.

There’s a solution, but it’s one that many people (and too many white nationalists don’t want to hear) and it’s called immigration. The emigration of people from under-developed nations to developed nations provides a stream of people who can work jobs, meaning they will be younger, need more things, and buy more things…enabling companies to sell goods and services. In addition, some of these folks can work at jobs that help the elderly. Win-win.

We are lost without understanding that increasing our population here in the states (and elsewhere in the world) is the key to a successful economy, whether or not it is capitalist. Even a socialist economy cannot survive without population growth. We need people to not just create overall solutions to huge problems like climate change, but people to do the basics of holding jobs, buying things, accessing services, and fundamentally running this place we call home.