Ray Dalio defines capitalism as pooling capital from many people to fund projects too big for individuals, like the interstate highway system. The speaker contrasts this with nonprofits relying on taxes, arguing that private capital pooling is essential for large-scale impact.
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So, in any event, Ray Dalio, very brilliant guy, love a lot of his thinking and a lot of the work that he's done. And he posted a definition of capitalism recently. And I was like, yes, at last. It's a definition that captures what I think the essence is of why capitalism is such a great thing. He said what capitalism is, it is the idea of pooling capital from individuals so that the resulting pool can be used to do things bigger and better and, and more dramatic than any one person could do. And we need capitalism to be able to do things like, I mean, in the nonprofit, it's called taxes. In the for profit sector, right? And we use that to build the interstate. Right. Which there's no economic model that makes the interstate a worthwhile investment. But having invested it as a group, it's great.