Free-market capitalism motivates you to serve others on their own terms; an economy based on redistribution motivates you to use others to serve your own ends against their will.

Comment “Capitalism” and we’ll send you an article that explores this topic further. Free markets align your self-interest with how successful you are at perceiving and satisfying the demands of strangers. To the extent that your efforts are aimed at satisfying the most urgently valued needs of consumers, employers, or associates, you’re likely to end up commanding a larger share of resources. Collectivist economies, despite supposedly advancing society’s interests, tend to fragment and unravel the social order. When government distribution becomes a privileged means of survival and prosperity, you’re incentivized to care less about satisfying others’ needs and more about securing a larger share of the resources distributed by the government, often at the expense of your fellows. In other words, capitalism creates mutual gains; redistribution creates gains for some at the expense of others.