Democracy vs Capitalism

Several years ago, while teaching high school, I was searching for an acceptable economics textbook to assign to my independent learning students.  In a common, “well-respected” textbook, I found the following review question,

“Which system would you prefer to live under, communism, socialism, or democracy?”

I was appalled.  I wrote a message to publisher and showed the book to my colleagues.  They did not seem to share my anger.  It has since occurred to me that my generation, and I believe the next one, were misled to believe that capitalism and democracy were interchangeable.  

Whether intentional or unintentional, this misconception has lead us down the road to destruction, including the election of Donald Trump.  I don’t think he even knows the difference.  Unfortunately neither do many of his followers.

If the United States government were to declare that we were sanctioning the people of Venezuela to bring them capitalism rather than democracy, the reaction of the American public would be much different.

Although considerable damage has been done, we can still hope and strive for a clarification of these terms for the next generation, before it is too late.