Someone asked me what the point of “Society” was. To which I promptly replied that I don’t know.
What I do know, is the point of my philosophy: Capitalism. Free Market Capitalism, in particular.
By Free Market Capitalism, I mean that government has no say or function in the goings on of business. If a government does exist in this philosophical world view, it is only metaphorical.
The point of Capitalism, is to acquire wealth (aka capital). Wealth takes the form of physical goods (non-temporally dependent) and services (ephemeral).
I’ve heard objections along the lines of, “We have all of this stuff, and we’re still not happy!” I wholly concur. The problem isn’t the amount of stuff, it’s having the right stuff. It must be stuff that you, the individual, values. If you are “rich” in the number of steel nails but “poor” in the number of hammers, you won’t be any happier than the guy who has hammers and no nails. Just acquiring “stuff” isn’t enough. However, both the Nail Man, and the Hammer Man would be happier if they traded some of their stuff.
Even if there was an island of 10 people with 10 coconuts each and no sharp rocks, they still wouldn’t be happier than if they had 100 coconuts each with no sharp rocks. No amount of coconuts would make them happier if they can’t access the juicy insides. It’s not about how many coconuts you have. It’s about how much value you get from each one. With 100 coconuts and no sharp rocks, those coconuts have 0 value. With the ingenuity of an islander to develop a sharp rock, the coconuts now have significant value. That value was created from ingenuity. Now all of them are “wealthier” because of the actions of one individual.
If you have 100 coconuts and no sharp rocks, you are not “wealthy” because you have no value for the things you own.
If you have 10 coconuts and a sharp rock, you are incredibly well off because you own things that are of value.