CAPITALISM: AN AMERICAN FAILURE
Capitalism, as it is practiced in the United States, has long been heralded as the backbone of American exceptionalism. But what if the very structure we celebrate is the one that keeps us unequal, unstable, and unfree?
To understand the present, we must start at the roots. Capitalism did not evolve in a vacuum. It emerged from the violence of European colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade — a global extraction economy built on stolen labor, stolen lands, and stolen futures. The so-called “free market” was never free. It was subsidized by genocide, enriched by slavery, and maintained by systemic exclusion.
Capitalism: A System Designed to Extract, Not Empower
The foundation of capitalism was never built on fairness or merit — it was built on hierarchy. From early British colonizers to American plantation owners, wealth was generated through enforced labor and systemic dispossession. The capitalist economy that dominates today still reflects that origin: valuing profit over people, competition over cooperation, and scarcity over shared abundance.
In the modern United States, this system has only morphed — into underpaid workers, predatory financial systems, manipulated housing markets, and generational poverty disguised as personal failure. Our communities are not failing. The system is. It was never made for us.
Equality Is a Myth. What We Need Is Equity.
Mainstream America loves the language of “equality” — but equality assumes we all start from the same place. We do not. You cannot “equalize” a race if one runner starts at the finish line while others are still shackled at the gate. What we need is equity: intentional redistribution of resources, power, and access based on historical and current disparities. Not charity, but repair.
A New Framework: Equity by Design
As an infrastructure designer, economist, and community organizer, my life’s work is co-designing with historically excluded communities — using data, research, and lived experience to reshape the systems that shape our lives. We don’t need reform. We need reinvention.
That’s why I developed an equity-based algorithm that redefines how we allocate capital, opportunity, and social infrastructure. Rooted in community-led input and real-time data, this tool measures not just outputs but access, impact, and historical disinvestment. It is not a bandage — it is a blueprint for a new economy. One that centers equity from the start.
From Failure to Future
It’s time to confront an uncomfortable truth: capitalism as practiced in America has failed. Not because people aren’t working hard enough, but because the system was never built to benefit all. It is a model of extraction, not elevation.
But we are not without hope. We are builders. We are co-designers. We are visionaries reclaiming the future.
“If we want an economy that serves everyone, we must dismantle what was and co-create what will be. Equity isn’t optional — it is the only way forward.”
