The Great Equalizer

There are many reasons people like gambling. Put down some money and anyone can win anytime. Anyone can win anytime. This, I feel, is an oft over-looked virtue of gambling. At the table, you are worth as much as your cards. The dice are colorblind. Your history and family are meaningless to everyone else, all that matters is if your money is real.

ReGeneration is a funny concept I'm still trying to mold. I find it solidifying and gaining popularity when I can use abstractions for tangible situations. The name ReGeneration is meant, among other things, to explicitly state that there must be a growth. Simply being after-the-fact (post-hoc/post-modern) isn't good enough anymore. We must be able to create, not destroy, ideas and institutions. This is why I will defend and build upon capitalism.

Often accused for having unrealistically high expectations, I can not advocate a complete re-haul of American ideology (future blog post: definition of "ideology"). Capitalism brings unprecedented cultural equality to our society that sees money as the great equalizer. Boycotts work because in the end, bus companies want money. Is the manager of Chipotle white, black, Latino or Asian? It doesn't matter when the food is worth the cost. Money allows anyone anywhere to be successful. To businesses, money means you are wanted. In a completely capitalist society, someone's sexual orientation doesn't matter. Someone's age, politics and language don't matter. Money can end all cultural controversy.

However, there still is discrimination. People do not love money enough to be blind to all other issues. More over, money creates its own forms of discrimination. People with no money become different than people with money. Each group becomes the other groups' other. So maybe there will always be a culture war, but that doesn't mean people have to be sick, cold or dead.

America is not completely capitalistic, nor will we ever be completely anything--we're not even completely democratic. So why is there a fear we will become communist if we adopt socialist ideas? I'm talking about equal access to resources. The founding fathers promised three things to all citizens--one of which was "life," another one was "pursuit of happiness." These don't need to contradict each other. Any if they do contradict each other, lets change them, because that's the third thing promised: liberty.

We can build upon societal foundations. If capitalism is the foundation we are given, lets build upon it. Lets find avenues of equality, freedom and prosperity with this societal road map, because they do exist. More healthy people mean more consumers. More free citizens mean more new business opportunities. More access to government resources mean more competition. And even though there are other ways to fuel advancement, this is the sandbox we are in; so we need to use the tools we have to progress onwards, upwards and outwards.