My final interviewee is SL. SL has a degree in Fire Sciences. He is 25 years old and currently works as a firefighter and paramedic in Missouri. His openly admitted right before the interview that he was unsure that his knowledge of Capitalism would be sufficient to satisfy the interview. The opposite ended up being true, as his answers give a great deal of insight into what the average American thinks of Capitalism. All answers are paraphrased by myself unless otherwise designated by quotation marks.
Q: What is Capitalism? Could you define it for me?
SL: Capitalism is the economic philosophy or system that the country [U.S.A.] runs one. It’s the free market system America uses today. “But it isn’t true Capitalism, it isn’t its pure form.”
Q: What do you mean it isn’t true Capitalism?
SL: I don’t remember the details, but my econ professor talked about how true Capitalism doesn’t account for life or proper life and so it doesn’t work with people. The American system is adjusted and regulated to make sure that people can live properly and a regulated system isn’t how Capitalism is suppose to work.
Q: While on the topic, can you think of other economic systems?
SL: “Socialism I guess? I don’t really know what a different system would be.”
Q: You mentioned an Econ professor earlier, so has Capitalism been taught to you? If so when.
SL: I had one Econ class and I think he was a socialist because he hated Capitalism and so he ranted about it a lot. Other than that I really haven’t learned about except through life itself.
Q: What are you personal experiences with Capitalism? Do you have any?
SL: I haven’t really had my own business or anything so personally I guess I don’t have much experience. I’d say you know I get paid, but as a firefighter, I get paid by the government so it’s a little different than a business I guess. My family also did really well, my dad has a very specific skill set which he developed in the military involving explosives and the private sector pays a lot for that sort of thing so we also had a good amount of money. “That’s supply and demand, I guess, right? There’s high demand for explosives experts, but not a lot want to play with bombs, so dad wins by making lots of money.”
Q: You specifically said “win”. A lot of other people interviewed talked about winners and losers in Capitalism. Do you think there are winners and losers? Which are you?
SL: I don’t think there are winners or losers. There are people that achieve more and people who achieve less, but the system is set up for equal opportunity, so really if someone honestly wants to be successful they can be. It’s a matter of finding the demand and creating the supply I think. This is the land of opportunity, right? “Personally, I’m right where I want to be, doing what I want to do.”
Q: How do you think Capitalism started?
SL: I’m not sure. “ I know it happened sometime after the revolution but I don’t think there is like an exact date, you’re the history major.” It seems to have just started changing overtime and turned into what it is now.
Q: Would you say Capitalism is a natural fit for countries then?
SL: Yeah, I’d say that it naturally evolved out of what Americans wanted their system to be. Maybe not true Capitalism because it doesn’t work but what we have now evolved from the idea of the land of opportunity.
Q: So do you think Capitalism has changed throughout America history?
SL: Definitely. It’s not the age of Rockefeller and Carnegie anymore. It has become more heavily regulated as time passed. Probably too much so. Being a firefighter, we have dozens of safely regulations put on us from the federal, state, and local governments. The market isn’t as free as it used to be and that is probably a limiting factor.
Q: Do you have any final thoughts to express about Capitalism that maybe didn’t fit in anywhere else?
SL: “Well I think it would work a lot better without all the regulations being in place like they are here in America. It’s a real problem because we as a country are dying because everything is being produced in places where it’s cheaper, which I guess is the Capitalist way. I guess I think that Capitalism seems so ingrained in America but at the same time it seems so naturally borderless, especially in the global economy.
Q: You said something really interesting, you said Capitalism was borderless. Could you elaborate on that?
SL: Well, like it doesn’t seem to want to exist within the borders of a country. Capitalism seems to follow the path of least resistance, or of purest Capitalism. So the places with less regulations act as better hosts to the capitalistic way. “Like, Made in America, isn’t always the simplest way or the biggest bang for your buck way.”
Q: So do you think that Capitalism is borderless, or the people that control the industry are borderless?
SL: I think it goes hand in hand, what is best for Capitalism is where these leaders are bound to want to go because where Capitalism flourishes, they make more money. That’s the whole point of the system, to make money, to achieve.
As you can see, SL had some incredibly interesting things to say even though he didn’t have a whole lot of education on the matter. It seems that at least to him so of these things were intuitive in nature.
