-Caveat Lector-
Nurev:
No matter what changes and inovations Capitalism goes through,
there always remains the deadly constants.
1- Private ownership of large amounts of capital ALWAYS
causes concentration of wealth into few hands. With that
ALWAYS comes control and exploitation of society.
MJ:
This is both absurd AND false. Take the greatest malignment of
all 'Robber Barons', John D. Rockefeller.
The efficiencies of economies of scale and vertical
integration caused the prices of refined petroleum
to fall from over 30 cents a gallon in 1869 to 10
cents by 1874 and to 5.9 cents by 1897. During the
same period, Rockefeller reduced his average costs
from 3 cents to 0.29 cents per gallon.
The production of refined petroleum increased rapidly
throughout this period of increasing dominance by
Standard Oil as well, as increased competition was
provided by Associated Oil and Gas, Texaco, the Gulf
Company, and 147 independent refineries that had sprung
into existence by 1911 -- the year in which the
government forced the breakup of Standard Oil.
Contrary to popular mythology, Standard Oil's market
share DECLINED from 88 percent in 1890 to 64 percent
by 1911. Because of intense competition the company's
oil production as a percentage of total market supply
had declined to a mere 11 percent in 1911, down from 34
percent in 1898.
Certainly 'exploiting' society with high prices for profit,
squeezing out competitors and sticking it to anyone he could
find.
Nurev:
2- Capitalism, like cancer, is defined by growth. The ecology
of the planet can no longer tolerate systems based on waste
and growth.
MJ:
This is both absurd AND false.
The key to stopping pollution is the hallmark of capitalism:
private property. The reason that it is so easy to pollute
rivers, oceans, the air, and land is because they are publicly
owned. Since public property partially belongs to everyone, no
one person takes care of it, and property with no real owner is
easy to pollute. However, if all property was privately owned,
then no one could dump in a river that they owned only a section
of because the waste would drift into another person's part of
the river, thus violating their property rights. The same applies
to beaches and oceans. If the ocean was divided up into privately
owned portions, then no one could pollute their part of the ocean
without the pollution spilling into someone else's property.
Also, if the beaches and parks were privately owned and the owner
charged money for people to use his land, then it would be in his
economic self-interest to keep his beach or park clean and
pollution free so people would frequent his property more than
his competitors.
It is through this same self-interest that points to the absurdity
of 'waste' you claim above.
Nurev:
3- Capitalism is theft. Its success depends on how much the
capitalist can steal from the worker on one end, and the
buyer on the other.
MJ:
There is no FORCE involved. The 'Capitalist' seeks to fill a
market with a product people 'need' or have a 'perceived need'.
In a capitalist society all workers are free to choose who they
are going to work for. So if a worker doesn't like the terms
that an employer is offering them for a job, they can simply
look for work elsewhere until they find a better job, or not
accept any job at all. Just because a worker doesn't like
everything about his job doesn't mean he is being 'exploited'.
For someone to be exploited they have to be physically forced
to work against their own will. It is only a government, not a
businessman, that has the type of power necessary to force people
to work against their own judgment.
Employers must compete for the services of their employees. If an
employer offers lower salaries or poorer working conditions than
other employers in a given field, workers will seek to work
elsewhere, and the employer will lose his employees and go out
of business. This means that it is in the economic self-interest
of employers to provide higher wages and better working conditions
than their competitors. Wages are not risen or lowered because an
employer is kind or cruel. Wages, like all other commodities, are
subject to the law of supply and demand. It is an inevitable
consequence of capitalism, through the accumulation of capital
and the widening of labor markets, that workers' wages rise and
their choices of employment increase over time. It is the lean
toward capitalism, not monopolistic unions or 'pro-worker'
legislation, that brought the pre-industrial serf out of his misery.
Nurev:
4- Capitalism causes mental illness in the form of addiction
to money.
MJ:
Non sequitur.
Nurev:
5- No Capitalist is really supportive of competition. Competition
is wasteful and chancy. Monopoly is the true aim of capitalists.
MJ:
A coercive monopoly is exclusive control in a field of production,
completely exempt from competition and the laws of supply and
demand. The only reason competition could ever be absolutely
barred is because the monopolist is benefiting from what is called
a 'barrier of entry'. These barriers, however, can only come from
one place: the government. It is only a government that has the
power to 'raise' a business above the laws of the market. In a
free market, all businesses are subject to competition, and
therefore must constantly be competing to stay ahead of their
competition. But when the government grants a certain business a
franchise, subsidy, or tariff protection, competition is legally
barred. In other words, government interference into the free market
is the real source of all coercive monopolies. It should finally be
noted that socialism, where the government has complete control over
the means of productions, is the ultimate form of monopoly.
For example, in the United States many utility companies are
monopolies. This is not because they deliver utilities, such
as water and electricity, better than any of their competitors,
but it is because the government has granted them a franchise for
a certain territory. This means that no one else is allowed to enter
the utility business apart from the government, and any attempt to
do so would be treated as a criminal act. The only type of monopoly
that could exist in a free market is a non-coercive monopoly, one
that is earned. This could be accomplished only if the business
'delivered the goods' better than any of their competitors, and
even if they did, they would only have monopoly status so long as
they were the best in their field and they would still be subject
to the laws of supply and demand like everyone else. Historically
speaking, any business that tried to establish a monopoly in
a free market by buying out its competitors or undercutting
prices by selling at a loss has gone bankrupt.
Regard$,
--MJ
The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false
reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind.
Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never
entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled
to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural
liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator, to the whole human
race; and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be
wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of
justice. Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and
secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing,
in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and
caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as
well as necessary to the well-being of society.
-- Alexander Hamilton, "The Farmer Refuted,"
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