World Capitalism Day
Oklahoma City Statement
December 1, 2002

Welcome to our press conference and thank you for being here. My name is Rob Abiera and I am the official coordinator for World Capitalism Day events here in Oklahoma City.

The first Sunday of December each year is "World Capitalism Day." The first one was held last year. It's theme was the "Principles and Possibilties of Capitalism." For 2002, our theme is "Capitalism & Human Creativity."

On this day - "World Capitalism Day" - here in Oklahoma City and around the globe, we thank the Producers and Creators - humankind's great benefactors. We extend a hand of friendship and support, and praise their achievements, their independence of thought, and their courage in following their dreams. And we uphold the only political system which makes all this possible. Capitalism.

It's time to stand up for freedom and prosperity. Now! Human creativity and invention, business, profit, production, free trade - both local and global - desperately need your support. Now, more than ever.

Whether you are a poet or a laborer, an entrepreneur or a charity worker, a teacher or a soldier, a scientist or a doctor - declare your support for Capitalism! Declare that only you and you alone own your life. Not the government, not "society".

We proudly uphold: Free trade, globalization, liberty, profit, free speech, technology, universal individual rights, intellectual and material prosperity, private property, rule of law, innovation, creativity, human dignity and happiness.

World Capitalism Day was founded by an Internet radio host in Australia named Prodos. On December 2, 2001, over 100 cities around the world participated in the FIRST ever World Capitalism Day. Thousands of individuals, families, and groups from every walk of life, from every corner of the globe stood up proudly for worldwide freedom and prosperity. Through hundreds of media outlets our peaceful and positive message reached millions.

Why is Capitalism worth celebrating? Why is Capitalism the only system that creates real freedom and prosperity? People tend to think that Capitalism is just an economic system, that it's about money. Capitalism is actually not about money - it's about freedom and human creativity. Intellectual and material wealth are consequences.

World Capitalism Day is a positive day of promotion, discussion, and festivities - NOT a counter protest. We'll leave the negativity and nihilism to the anti-Capitalists. We not only uphold the Producers and Creators of the world, we seek to emulate their constructive, positive spirit.

And this is one of the reasons why we choose to celebrate World Capitalism Day. Capitalism today is under attack, as it always has been, by those who, motivated by power for the sake of power, deny the reality of human nature: that human beings are individuals and cannot live as anything else, and that human beings require freedom in order to be human. These are the type of people who smear human nature as being capable of nothing but destruction.

But human history is full of examples to the contrary, and this is what we commemorate today, the Producers who make all human life possible, past and present, and all those striving to make it possible for the future.

This is why Capitalism is not about money. Many people think that wealth is some static quantity, and that the only important issue is how to distribute it - that it's a pie that they have to worry about grabbing a share of. But before wealth can be distributed, it must be created. Wealth is not some pre-existing material found in nature. Wealth is created by the human mind, which can only function properly under freedom. This is why freedom is the defining attribute of Capitalism and why Capitalist societies create more wealth than any other. When the mind is free, there is no limit to creation, and abundance, material and otherwise, follows.

This is why true Capitalism requires that freedom be recognized as an absolute, or as Ayn Rand put it, "True Capitalism requires the complete separation of state and economy, in the same manner and for the same reasons as the separation between state and church."

Anything less is not Capitalism.

But there are those who say that there are more important things than freedom. Very well. If they do not value freedom, then let them be the ones to lose it. But do not give them the power to take away everybody else's freedom.

Is there anything more important to human beings than freedom? History has proved that there isn't. That is what Capitalism is about and that is what we celebrate today.

Today there is an effort to portray all business people - those Producers who keep us all alive - as criminals by nature, thus leaving them no means to prove their innocence. Despite the belief of some to the contrary, dishonesty is not the way to succeed in business - at least not without government help. Enron is the exception, not the rule, and it is a deadly insult to all CEO's to treat them as if they were the CEO of Enron. Yet that is exactly what our government is doing today. Legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed this summer, treats all business-people as guilty by definition. And last month, the Justice Department issued a statement that the US government opposes Capitalism. Is this the way we wish to remember all the business-people who died in the World Trade Center?

That is why we have come here today. To show Oklahoma City that there are those who recognize the value and importance of Capitalism and freedom and are willing to uphold them. To facilitate this effort, I have launched a website called The Oklahoma Capitalist at www.oklahomacapitalist.com. This website will feature pro-Capitalist news and resources, and I urge all those who feel the same as we do to join our email list, which you can sign up for at the website.

We look forward to continuing this effort in the coming months and invite everyone to join us in celebrating World Capitalism Day next year, when it will fall on December 7. I hope we will be able to do much more next year to make it a true celebration, including Oklahoma City's first Capitalist of the Year Award. Until then, we hope to be able to bring pro-Capitalist speakers, including speakers from the Ayn Rand Institute to Oklahoma City, and we encourage students to enter the Ayn Rand Institute's essay contests, which they can find more information about at www.aynrand.org. By the way, we are not connected with the Ayn Rand Institute in any way. We will also be issuing statements on issues involving Capitalism as events warrant.

And, of course, you can find out all about the global campaign for World Capitalism Day, including the official position paper, by visiting www.celebratecapitalism.org.

Thank you again for joining us.