Capitalism is Magic: Family Appreciation Day

This weeks episode of MLP:FIM featured Applebloom's silly attempts to avoid having her Grandmother, Granny Smith, come in to her school during "Family Appreciation Day," basically a "show and tell" session where fillies present one of thier family members to thier class.

The mane story is cute and ultimately has a happy, heart warming message about not judging a pony's character by her apperance.  On a subtle note, a very subtle, yet profound pro-capitalist message is sprinkled into the mix.

One interesting side plot is the story of Diamond Tiara's father, "Filthy Rich."  It is made clear that Mr. Rich operates a wholesale retail store, where he captures the wholesale market, purchases in bulk, and slashes prices to undermine every other gift market in town, which is how Rich's Barn Yard Bargains becomes the corner stone of retail in ponyville.

While throughout the episode, it is inferred (by Cheerilee and Grannysmith) that Filthy Rich's wealth and success make him worthy of the name "Filthy," it is NOT inferred that his wealth is obtained illegitimately, unfairly, or even that it is undeserved.  Filthy's business model, though boring to the young fillies, is a sound one that every succesful retail business follows.

Furthermore, later in the episode, when Granny Smith actually does end up at Apple Bloom's presentation, the tale she gives about her pilgrim days as one of the founding families of Ponyville directly tells how Stinking Rich (Diamond Tiara's grand father), motivated out of a spirit of entrapeneurialism, came to Ponyville to sell the Zap-apple products Granny Smith produced.

Thus, in the founding of Ponyville it is revealed that hard work and free trade were the founding tenants of the town.  The Apply family pilgrims that came before it's founding weren't relocated as a part of some government assistance program.  Princess Celestia pointed the way to Granny Smith's father as to where they should lay thier stakes, but she did NOT take the wealth of any other pony and give it to the Apple family, nor did she involve any other sort of "government safety net" to get them started.  The Apple family's own initiative was the driving force to them settling in what would later be Ponyville.

In going thier own way, the Apple Family didn't have an easy time.  They endured hardship and shortage, they had to work hard, be self reliant and take chances with no certainty of a succesful outcome.  Ultimately, the product of thier labours and the free market that allowed them to trade those products were what got them through and better yet, founded the town of Ponyville.

That certainly is the contrast to the socialist utopia much of the western world lives in now.  There are no pilgrims, as the governments of the world seal off borders and restrict mobility.  No one "suffers" because the same government's redistribute wealth in the interest of fairness and equality; in so doing, no one really ever becomes "Filthy Rich" without being a government crony.  In real life, there may be "Filthy Rich" and "Stinking Rich" ponies, but too many of those do so through dishonest means in collusions with corrupt governments and criminal banks to use the barrel of a gun to corner markets, instead of employing sound business practices and free markets.

Truly the founding of Ponyville is magic - it was the product of free market capitalism.