Capital of the Mind
Last night, I watched a program on PBS about farmers in Africa.
http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/about/overview_2.html The
program was hosted by Robert Redford, and consisted of
interviews with farmers, whose lives were changed by water
pumps, which work by stepping on one pedal and then the other.
These farmers had no tools except crude hand tools. The
introduction of a simple manual water pump allowed them to
increase their production ten fold or more. The pump really
meant the difference between starvation and the possibility of
sending their kids to school. I thought this is a great example
of the importance of capital.
Then this morning, I wandered over to the food court at the mall
near my office. I noticed how even minimum wage jobs in America
are totally swamped with capital. I purchased a sandwich. In
addition to the physical building, counters, air conditioning
etc., they had refrigerators, grills, meat cutters, cash
registers, credit card machines, etc., etc., etc. Of course the
minimum wage job still demands a wage many times that of the
farmers in Africa.
Americans love capital. We surround ourselves with the stuff.
Think about the capital involved in your taking this class. All
this capital allows us to live the lives we live. None of us
could remotely approach the standard of living that we have
without capital. In fact, we would probably quickly starve to
death.
The important thing to remember about capital is that it is not
martial in its essence. Capital is a product of the mind. The
computer you are using is not valuable because of the minerals
and chemicals included in its makeup. It is valuable because of
all the knowledge incorporated into that computer. This in
knowledge that has been created generation after generation in a
system that encouraged its creation and use, and rewarded those
who figured out how to put it to productive use. None of us got
here on our own, but we are all extremely indebted to those who
came before us.