LinkedIn on Sunday, July 12, 2026

The “Last Laugh Hypothesis” is my name for the insidious way in which capitalism overthrows dictatorships, effecting regime change without our having to apply military force.  As it turns out, all we need to do, for example, to convert Russia and eventually China into free democracies is inject our capitalism into their economies by virtue of positive, free trade policies and market development by American companies.  It takes time and we need to be patient, but it works.

We benefit from the trade we do and US corporate revenues we generate with the help of Russian consumers.  In the process, we encourage the development of a merchant/middle class in Russia that, more and more, demands a free market economy (capitalism) which works best in partnership with a democratic government.  Say goodbye to Putin and his potential authoritarian successors.

The United States and our western allies have the last laugh in our tepid war with so-called communist opponents.  Hence my name for the strategy.

Keep in mind that neither Russia nor China are communist states despite the names of their ruling parties.  In fact, estimates are that more than 60% of Chinese gross domestic product is produced by privately owned Chinese companies.  (Privately owned companies don’t exist in textbook capitalism.)  And now you know the secret to the growing power and prosperity of their economy.  Years from now, as predicted of course by my Last Laugh Hypothesis, China will be a democracy and completely privately held capitalist state.  Its economy will be bigger than ours, unless of course, we grow our population via immigration which has been the secret sauce of our success so far, notwithstanding the prejudiced opinions of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, both of whom are the products of immigration, albeit by white people.

In Russia, only an estimated 30% to 40% of GDP is privately produced.  And in Iran, those numbers are only 10% to 20% – versus 75% to 80% in Israel, the remainder being government spending.  Our number is 87% privately held.

More than 99% of American businesses are privately held.  We need to encourage the economies of Russia, China and Iran to be more like ours.  The more capitalistic those adversarial economies, the greater the popular demand for democracy.

In the 1960s, psychologist Abraham Maslow observed that “…it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”  No, he wasn’t talking about Donald Trump and his use of military force in Venezuela and Iran to effect regime change.  As powerful as our military may be, it’s not our most effective tool against authoritarian states.  It’s just the easiest to use.  Our greatest tool is our economy, American capitalism.  If only our government – The White House and Congress too – were smart enough, enlightened enough to use it as a non-violent, mutually productive tool for world peace.

People, in all countries and cultures, who are doing well financially, who are able to provide for themselves and their families, invariably prefer peace and demand the freedom that only a democratic government can provide.

-Les Cohen