This winter has brought a useful tutorial on capitalism courtesy of the media, the Democratic party and President Obama. They have illustrated for us how the depredations of profit-seekers crush American aspirations.

We will be hearing much more about how Mitt Romney and his private-equity buddies at Bain Capital bought up companies and began searching for ways to return them to profitability. This might mean laying off unneeded workers, outsourcing or automating jobs. As the cliche has it, these smarty-pants consultants in their pinstripe suits are given to “ruthlessly wringing out inefficiencies,” workers be damned. Jobs — entire industries! — are killed or sent to China.

So let’s consider how American businesses might be run if...