Defenders of Capitalism Newsletter – Winter 2026
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Defenders of Capitalism newsletter. Each quarter, we’ll examine economics, culture, and history through a simple but often neglected lens: the human mind as the source of value and prosperity. Our goal is not to shout or persuade by volume, but to clarify—to examine the world as it is and defend the ideas that make flourishing possible.
Our featured essay explores this idea directly—how wealth begins in the mind, not the ground.
Quote of the Day
“Capitalism was the only system in history where wealth was not acquired by looting, but by production, not by force, but by trade, the only system that stood for man's right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself.”
Mind Over Matter
Why the Human Mind Is the Source of Wealth
Mitch Whitus
On bitter winter mornings, as I crank up the heat in my home, I rarely stop to think about what makes my comfort possible. But I should.
Long ago, over many millions of years, the remains of algae and microscopic animals fell to the ocean floor. Buried under layers of sediment and subjected to intense heat and pressure, this organic material decayed into hydrocarbons. Early civilizations encountered natural seeps of petroleum, using it for crude medicine and construction, but remained ignorant of its chemical potential.
John D. Rockefeller’s company mastered the industrial-scale refinement of this black sludge, providing cheap fuel for people across the world. More than a century later, I am a proud beneficiary of that achievement. I remain warm year-round for less than two dollars a day, living in a level of comfort unimaginable even to the most powerful ancient rulers.
The Alchemy of Intellect
Our planet is not a treasure chest opened and consumed at will to satisfy our needs. The Earth is a repository of ingredients—raw matter without inherent purpose. Across the vastness of history, rubber was the easily rotted sap of a tree, and mold an opportunistic fungus. Then Charles Goodyear vulcanized rubber for the tires, belts, and seals that would mobilize twentieth-century industry; Alexander Fleming discovered a method for converting fungus into penicillin and saving the lives of untold millions from bacterial infection. The creation of wealth requires the deliberate application of intellect into reality.
Value was never embedded in the primordial organism buried and liquefied eons ago, nor in the sap or the mold; the bedrock of value lies in the recipe—as conceived by the human mind—upon which abundance and progress are rooted.
Human history is crowded with brilliant and enterprising individuals. Millennia ago, Roman architects constructed vast aqueducts to transport fresh water into cities, while Egyptian administrators designed immense pyramids to precise geometric specifications.
But the soil for genius was soured—the conditions to properly unleash creativity could not take root in such barren ground. The Roman republic’s bitter civil wars gave way to one-man authoritarian central planning under the empire. Egypt’s grandiose monuments were created at the direction of megalomaniacal god-kings with a monopoly over all property in the country. Brute force and coerced labor could not produce the widespread, compounding prosperity that emerged in the 1800s.
The Convergence of 1776
The modern world’s prosperity required a fundamental shift in the organization of society. Western civilization today enjoys the Enlightenment’s inheritance, and the writings of its great thinkers remain essential reading for anyone seeking to understand American civilization. For our purposes, the year 1776 serves as a convenient marker for the birth of capitalism—and the growing recognition of individual rights that propelled humanity forward.
The Declaration of Independence represented far more than a political separation from Great Britain. Its central argument rejected kingship and affirmed every person’s right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These ideals, founded in freedom, enshrined the individual’s ability to use his or her mind for self-actualization, rejecting the notion that human effort should be directed toward the arbitrary demands of the state or the whims of a ruler.
And not only did 1776 produce one of the most impactful documents in history—it also saw the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner,” Smith wrote, “but from their regard to their own interest.” In short, voluntary exchange and self-interest—not state coercion—are what make an economy functional and prosperous. Remarkably, that same year James Watt introduced his improved steam engine, giving the world its first commercial measure of “horsepower,” and symbolizing how political liberty, economic liberty, and technological innovation were converging to launch humanity into an era of unprecedented progress.
Modern scholars debate whether a straight line runs from The Wealth of Nations to capitalism, or whether Smith served instead as capitalism’s “drunken uncle.” Whatever Smith’s personal views, his book marked the turning point for free enterprise. The state-sponsored obsession with hoarding gold and exporting goods—mercantilism—was intellectually bankrupt. Economics was no longer considered a zero-sum game; human beings could exchange value for value without obsessing over the collectivist “balance of payments” concept.
The bounty of capitalism requires recognition of the sanctity and brilliance of the individual’s mind. It also requires the ability for people to freely interact, trade, and exchange value for value. Thus can a person pursue his or her own rational self-interest, produce, and build wealth in concert with other rationally self-interested individuals.
The Hockey Stick of Human Progress
It is no accident that around the year 1800, the graph of human progress—flat for millennia—suddenly turned upward into a “hockey stick” of unprecedented growth. Any wealth created was frequently confiscated or pillaged by a despot. Ownership of property, and of one’s own life, was subject to the will of the strongest. The fruits of one’s mind were the spoils for another.
“Capitalism” often conjures images of ill-gotten riches, chaotic stock exchanges, and faceless skyscrapers. This is a tragic misconception of the term. It ignores the profound reality that the human mind is the source of wealth—a truth humanity struggled to recognize for thousands of years until the Enlightenment.
With individual rights protected, people like John D. Rockefeller could experiment and create—building the new and the wondrous from the raw materials of the Earth. Defending capitalism is more than advocating for lower taxes, fewer regulations, or smaller government. It also requires defending the individual’s right to think, to create, and to carry the torch of discovery, progress, and prosperity into a better future.
For Your Consideration
- Let’s Appreciate What Makes America’s Generosity Possible | Cato Institute
- One Man’s ‘Warmth of Collectivism’ Is Another’s Inferno | National Review
- Ben Sasse and the Path Not Taken | The Dispatch
Abundance? Uh-Oh
When Politicians Discover the Word but Forget the Cause
Michael Williams
For much of the last half century, the political left spoke the language of limits. Growth was suspect. Capitalism was said to be exhausted, exploitative, or in its “late stage.” The future was framed less as something to be built than something to be managed—or endured.
Lately, something changed.
A growing number of politicians now speak enthusiastically about abundance. We hear about abundant housing, abundant clean energy, abundant public investment, even an “abundance agenda.” Figures like Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez frame their ambitions not in terms of scarcity or redistribution, but as promises of plenty.
On its face, this shift is welcome. Concern for abundance is morally superior to resignation to stagnation or decline. A politics that aspires to human flourishing is better than one steeped in nihilism or managed scarcity.
But rhetoric matters—because it reveals assumptions. And in this case, the word abundance is being used in a way that quietly disconnects it from its cause.
Why This Sounds Like Progress
For years, many on the left treated prosperity itself as morally suspect. Economic growth was framed as environmentally destructive, socially unjust, or inherently exploitative. Against that backdrop, the turn toward abundance sounds like a correction. When politicians speak of abundant housing or abundant energy, they are at least acknowledging that people want more—more space, more security, more comfort, more opportunity. That instinct is not cynical. It is deeply human.
If today’s political class is rediscovering the idea that life can be made better rather than merely equalized, that’s huge! The problem is not the aspiration. The problem is the explanation.
Abundance Has A Cause
But abundance is not a policy outcome. It is not something legislated into existence or summoned by good intentions. Abundance is the result of free individuals applying their minds to reality.
It emerges from experimentation, specialization, and the division of labor, voluntary exchange, and the accumulation of knowledge across generations. It depends on secure property rights, predictable rules, and the freedom to try—and fail—without asking permission from a central authority. In short: abundance is created, not allocated.
This distinction matters because nearly every political misuse of the concept begins by treating abundance as something government can deliver rather than something society must be allowed to produce.
Abundance by Decree: The Conceptual Error
Consider housing, now the flagship example of “abundance” politics. Politicians promise abundant housing while defending policies that restrict supply. Zohran Mamdani regularly speaks of the need for “housing abundance,” yet supports rent control, expanded tenant protections, and aggressive limits on what landlords and developers may charge or build. Rent control is justified as compassion—but its effects are well known: reduced supply, deferred maintenance, and fewer new units over time.
In energy, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez champions what she has called a vision of “abundant, clean energy for all,” while supporting policies that slow permitting, pick technological winners, and layer mandates atop already complex regulatory regimes. Innovation is praised in speeches, but constrained in practice.
Even the language gives the game away. “Housing is a human right,” we are told. “Healthcare is a human right.” Once framed this way, production becomes secondary. What matters is distribution—and when supply fails to appear, the blame shifts to profiteers, speculators, or insufficient enforcement. The assumption is always the same: if abundance does not materialize, it is because the state has not pushed hard enough.
Why This Always Ends the Same Way
When governments promise abundance without securing the conditions that produce it, three things reliably follow. First, production becomes politicized. Decisions once made by individuals responding to prices, preferences, and local knowledge are replaced by committees responding to political incentives. Second, shortages appear. When supply fails to meet expectations, the explanation is never that planning failed—it is that producers were greedy, insufficiently regulated, or morally suspect. Third, coercion expands. Controls tighten. Penalties increase. Compliance replaces creativity.
What begins as a promise of abundance quietly becomes a system of rationing—formal or informal—backed by force of law.
Abundance Without Freedom Is Just a Softer Word for Control
This is the danger embedded in today’s rhetoric. When politicians adopt the language of abundance without acknowledging its cause, the word becomes a branding upgrade rather than a conceptual shift. It offers the sound of optimism without the substance of liberty.
Abundance, properly understood, is inseparable from freedom. It depends on the ability of individuals to think, to experiment, to adapt, and to trade—in ways no planner could predict or approve in advance. Remove those conditions, and abundance becomes a promise that can only be enforced by power. That is not flourishing. It hastens decline.
A Conditional Optimism
If today’s political enthusiasm for abundance reflects a genuine concern for human flourishing, that is good news. It suggests that stagnation and resentment are losing their grip on the moral imagination. But abundance is not something government gives. It is something free people create.
The question is not whether we want abundance. The question is whether we are willing to allow the conditions that make it possible.
Capital Idea Podcast
Hosted by Michael Williams and Mitch Whitus, Capital Idea explores the economic, historical, empirical, and moral case for capitalism. Capital Idea is an intelligent — sometimes irreverent — and entertaining discussion for honest people of all political persuasions who want to better understand the only moral economic system.
On a recent episode we explored liberty, leadership, and education in America with Bob Schaffer—former Congressman, Liberty Common High School Headmaster, and Chairman of the Leadership Program of the Rockies.
Why Defenders of Capitalism?
Defenders of Capitalism exists because the moral case for capitalism is rarely understood or stated clearly—and too often abandoned altogether.
Capitalism is not primarily about economics. It is a social system grounded in a simple truth: the human mind is the source of value, and freedom is the condition that allows it to function. When individuals are free to think, create, and trade voluntarily, abundance follows—not by decree, but by reason applied to reality.
This project is not about defending “the rich” or markets for their own sake. It is about championing the individual – the producer, builder, and creator—whose efforts make human flourishing possible. Defenders of Capitalism is also not a partisan project. The erosion of individualism, reason, and responsibility is not confined to the political left or right. Collectivism wears many costumes. We are interested in ideas, not tribes.
We reject the framing that treats capitalism as a moral compromise. A system grounded in voluntary exchange and individual rights is not at odds with human values—it depends on them.
Meet the Team
Anders Ingemarson – Senior Research & Curriculum Advisor
Anders is an author, speaker and educator, he’s a champion of reason, rational self-interest, individual rights, limited government and capitalism. His book Think Right or Wrong, Not Left or Right: A 21st Century Citizen Guide is currently on its third edition.
Mitch Whitus – Editor & Capital Idea Podcast Co-host
Mitch is actively involved with the Defenders of Capitalism Project™ as the newsletter editor and cohosts the Capital Idea podcast with Mike Williams. He currently serves on the Board of the Leadership Program of the Rockies and is a consulting with a global technology research and IT advisory firm.
Krescent Williams – Head of Operations
Krescent leads operations for Defenders of Capitalism™, improving processes across marketing, events, and podcast production through data-driven problem-solving. With experience ranging from geochemistry research to music education to business operations, she brings both analytical rigor, business acumen, and creativity to the team.
Michael Williams – Founder & Director of Principles and Practice
Mike created the Defenders of Capitalism Project™ and is president of ALTIUS Financial, bringing decades of experience in investments, financial planning, capital markets, and applied economic philosophy. An international speaker and member of the Mont Pelerin Society, he serves on the boards of the Leadership Program of the Rockies and the Steamboat Institute.
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