Capitalism and Evolution

There are many people, especially in America, who believe in capitalism but not in evolution. They find it impossible to believe that life in all its richness and intricacy could have "just happened" and believe that the only possible explanation is design by an intelligent Creator. In fact it could have very well "just happened,"  and to understand this one needs look no further than the good ole American capitalism. 

People who have no knowledge of capitalist economics, such as ones who lived in the Soviet Union, frequently find it unfathomable how a system like America's, which is not command-control, could have such an intelligent design. That there is a store for everything, there is something for every purse and purpose, and pieces fit together, leads them to think that all this prosperity must have been designed by the government. Of course that is not the case, and most of what is bought and sold in America was produced by private businesses with no connection to one another. It happened because people kept looking for opportunities to make money - and found them by producing one or another thing that people would want to buy. As they competed with one another, they put pressure on one another to produce quality goods. As they became wealthier, there consumed more, creating opportunity for other people to produce other, new goods that did not exist previously. And that is how the American system was made possible, and achieved greater intelligence and quality of products than did centrally planned systems. 

The exact same thing has happened in the natural world. Mutation by mutation, different forms of life arose and either survived or didn't. As more life forms came about, there was more biomass for other new life forms to arise. Competition perfected them all to an exceptionally high level. And the result was a planet verdant, rich, beautiful, exquisitely balanced, with millions of unique and intricate life forms existing in dynamic equilibrium - a process that took over 4 billion years, and that could easily have taken place all by 
itself. 

If a process like capitalism can over two hundred years create the wealth and vibrancy of America - including such hi-tech contraptions as supercomputers, nanotechnological devices, credit cards, 
artificial limbs, space vehicles - over two hundred years, then what can take place over 4 billion years? Evolution may seem incredible, but becomes less so when considering what capitalism accomplished over a vastly shorter period of time. Nature does not require an intelligent creator to explain all its richness and intricacy any more than America requires an absolute monarch to explain the vibrancy of its economy. Indeed, if one is to look at example of centrally planned economic systems, a nature put into place by the dictate of an intelligent creator would be expected to be a lot less rich place than it is. 

So this is the way to conceptualize it. If you respect capitalism, then you should also respect evolution. The two processes have a lot in common, and understanding one allows one to understand the other. Nature no more requires an intelligent creator to make it possible than does capitalism require central planning to achieve what it has achieved. Indeed, an intelligent creator would probably be seen by plants and animals to be as much of a pest as many economic players in America see the federal government. But that is a theme for another essay.