I heard a young activist recently say, “Capitalism has failed people and the planet.” That echoes what I have heard a lot of recently. Seriously? Who do they think created their smart phones, electric cars, lattes and kombuchas? The government? Nope, it was entrepreneurs with an idea, some ambition, some smarts and a measure of luck.

I get it. As a student of theology and history, capitalism is problematic. I think it is an amoral system. A-moral — not immoral. We have to apply the values. Frankly, I am more concerned about the rank materialism embedded in our culture and spreading around the world. Stuff will not make you happy if your soul is not healthy.

But, we have not had a pure capitalist economy in this country in 190 years. It was Andrew Jackson who used the power of government to regulate business in the modern sense when he took on the Second Bank of the United States. Since that time, and especially after FDR, government regulations have grown. Reagan and Trump tried to slow it down, but no one seriously advocates for an un-regulated economy. In my time with the Farm Bureau, I have advocated for safe and sane regulations. Apparently, that is asking too much. One of our local members of Congress looked at me one time and said I was entirely too reasonable for D.C. If I am too reasonable, the problem may not be me.

Bjorn Lomborg is professor of statistics in Denmark and a former member of Greenpeace. He got tired of businesspeople saying things were actually getting better and decided to use his skills as a statistician to prove business people wrong. He ended up writing “The Skeptical Environmentalist.” His thesis is we do more for the environment by addressing poverty and hunger. As people come out of the day-to-day grind of poverty, they have the interest and the means for taking care of the environment. His recent book, “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurst the Poor and Fails to Fix the Planet” makes a similar point. Fear is driving the wrong policies.

Late-stage capitalism? I hope not. I would have thought one of the lessons of the 20^th Century is that socialism does not work. India and China gave up on it decades ago. Millions died needlessly under socialism in the last century. Millions more suffered. Capitalism has its problems, but like Churchill said of democracy, free market capitalism is the worst form of economy, except for all the others. If you have read Al Gore’s “Earth in the Balance,” his first example of environmental disaster was not in a capitalist country. It was the draining of the Aral Sea in the former Soviet Union. His example of horrible air quality was Soviet bloc Romania. By Gore’s own reckoning, socialism is harder on the environment than capitalism, but few notice that.

The politicians, the press and advocates make a living off of environmental fear. But, and this is a big BUT, they have no responsibility for producing anything. One of the classic logical fallacies is Either/Or thinking. The answer is usually Both/And. Environment OR Economy is a false choice. The smart choice is Environment AND Economy.

Frankly I am encouraged that young people care enough to get involved. I appreciate their passion and concern. I would have been one of them, except I farmed. Farming forced me to balance hopes and reality while working in the natural world. It is easy to be an idealist when sipping lattes by the beach. Reality is a stern task master on the farm.

It would be tragically and historically wrong to back track from the economic system that has done better for more people than anything else. Let’s address any problems we face and move forward.

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Farmer, writer and educator, Paul Betancourt is a lecturer at Fresno State and written books on Swiss political history and environmental policy.