LETTER: No egalitarian society under capitalism

It is a sad day indeed when an organisation that previously enjoyed an excellent reputation propagates blatant untruths about our economic system (“SA does not have capitalism”, January 23).

Our economic system is undoubtedly a free market, as evidenced by minimal government interference. We have a thriving stock exchange in which multinational companies are listed and willing, knowledgeable buyers and sellers can freely trade shares and other financial instruments. The rand trades freely.

It seems the Free Market Foundation has been captured by a right-wing element of one race group. The government owns entities that are essential but not profitable to run, such as the post office (rural areas in particular) and the railways. All of the entities run by the state were inherited from the pre-1994 government.

Sentiment has turned against capitalism because it excludes the poor from a meaningful share of profits. Capitalism produces the most wealth among different economic systems, but the market is inefficient in redistributing wealth, so a few people grow fabulously rich and the overwhelming majority live in poverty.

Innovation and guts must always be fairly rewarded in an economy. Empirical research has revealed that the wealth of 2,214 of the richest people in the world exceeds the wealth of just more than 4-billion of the poorest people. It is under these circumstances that the greed of the few who thrive under capitalism has been exposed. We can never achieve an egalitarian society under capitalism.

Jeffrey Mothuloe
Montana Park