"Give Capitalism a Chance"
"Slight" problems with the analysis in the article in Mises Daily even if
it is thoughtful and worth thinking about.
We had pretty much unfettered capitalism in the 19th century, into the
first 2 decades of the 20th,
as unfettered as it is reasonable to expect in the real world.
Depressions in the 1830s, the 1850s, the 1870s and so forth, with a biggie
just before WWI.
We also had child labor, 12 hour days, 6 days a week, with "liberal"
employers
giving half days off on Saturdays, we had little or nothing by way of
safety standards,
zero environmental consciousness and , with that, massive despoilation of
every
imaginable variety ( ask Chris about mines of all kinds ), and on and on.
But capitalists are far superior now ? Sure SOME are. But in other cases,
like
the coal industry, they are leopards who have never changed their spots or
zebras who have never changed their stripes. The outright criminality of
the
coal industry ( obviously not all of it, but a lot of it ) is a disgrace to
America.
And we just saw what BP did in acting irresponsibly, trying to be
"unfettered" in its operations.
Capitalism is as flawed as democracy.
To repeat, what Churchill said of democracy remains 100 % true.
It is inefficient, given to moral failings, often produces bad outcomes,
and you name it. It is bad news in 100 different ways.
But democracy happens to be better than any other system ever devised.
Same thing for capitalism.
To glorify it as if we would have a utopia if only capitalists were left to
their own devices is empirically false.
One other thing, A scholar named Clay Shirky has an argument that, I think,
cuts to the chase better than anything else I have ever come across.--
If you create a system in which greed is regarded as a virtue, guess what ?
You will get greedy behavior and values based on avarice. What goes with
these
things is what the lessons of history teach us., which free trade champions
really, really like to totally ignore.
This manifestly DOES NOT say that the only alternative is some version
of Marxism. That viewpoint is also empirically false. But because this
"only alternative"
hokum is pushed for political reasons a lot of people ( say 90% ) can't
even conceive
of anything else. Either the spectre of Socialism ( the horror, the horror
) or sell
your soul to the nearest corporation.
Yes, some corporations are, in fact, model citizens. We all can think of
dozens
or maybe hundreds ; there probably are many thousands. But the point is
that
this outcome is anything but inevitable and to blame the bad things
corporations
may do ( and a lot do, all the time ) on the Big Bad Government as if that
is the entire explanation is pure balderdash.
We need a new kind of economic theory. Not Adam Smith, not Keynes, not Marx
and not anything that yet exists. We don't have it yet, but when we do it
could
make RC a major factor in all politics from that time onward.
This is one case where the mantra about "thinking outside the box" is
absolutely
a good idea and a necessity.
Sermon for today
Rev Billy
==================================================
Mises Daily
_Give Capitalism a Chance_
(http://mises.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bf16b152ccc444bdbbcc229e4&id=e0b8a5e208&e=86aba11f05)
by Kel Kelly on August 4, 2010
It is a common assumption in today's world that capitalism is, at best, out
of control and, at worst, outright evil. Everyone knows that it causes
most of our financial, economic, and social problems, and that we need a
referee — the government — to make sure that all is fair and that we innocent
citizens are not taken advantage of by predatory companies and capitalists.
The fact, of course, is that everyone is wrong.
My urgent goal in writing _The Case for Legalizing Capitalism_
(http://mises.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bf16b152ccc444bdbbcc229e4&id=02d9d0ff08&;
e=86aba11f05) was to create a one-stop refutation of all anticapitalist
arguments, using plain economic logic and applying free-market (i.e.,
classical liberal) arguments and economic laws to today's political scene,
across
the entire political-economic spectrum. In short, the goal was to condense
the world of the Mises Institute into one book.
During my study of free-market economics over the years, it occurred to me
that this fascinating, economically sound reasoning for how the world
really works and what would genuinely help our lives was widely discussed in
the
procapitalism, academic-type world, but that the general public was wholly
unaware of these astounding insights.
I wanted to explain free markets in plain English to average citizens, so
that they could understand which government policies help or harm them, and,
as a consequence, so that they could vote in such a way as to improve
their lives.
My main message is that most of our economic problems derive from previous
government intervention in the economy. In its attempts to "help" us, the
government has managed and regulated the economy, and passed laws that
sounded constructive but that in fact hurt the economy and us.
Political economic reality is replete with the law of unintended
consequences. Our economic problems are the natural result of political forces,
not
the natural result of (supposedly evil) market forces. We have voted our
current problems into existence by electing politicians who promised to help
us by means of economic intervention and regulation.
As Austrians know, most people believe we have free markets, but we have no
such thing. This is true regardless of the fact that politicians of all
stripes — and most of the media — claim that we do. The government has its
hand in every company and every industry in the nation, controlling what
things are produced and by which means. Indeed, it even manipulates market
prices and production directly.
Left-wing pundits ridicule those who label such government manipulation and
control "socialism," but it is in fact just that. Socialism involves
government control of the means of production, and its real purpose is
redistributing property for the benefits of "society" (society being
receivers, not
givers). Controlling production and redistributing wealth are precisely the
goals and justifications of our government's constant intervention in the
economy.
But this constant "helping" through attempting to "manage" has resulted in
a constant decline in our ability to produce real wealth and thereby to
improve our standards of living. As it is now, we are seeing a consistent
increase in the wealth of the rich, a moderate improvement in the wealth of
the
middle class, and stagnation in the living standards of the poor. As has
happened to other countries at various points in history, we are now on the
verge of retrogressing economically.
Consider this remarkable irony: most citizens put their faith in government
— the entity that steals from us, causes wars, imprisons and starves
innocent citizens, and is an absolute monopoly — to provide for us and keep us
safe.
At the same time, they see businesses — which have eradicated diseases and
starvation, engaged in peaceful exchanges instead of war, produced
virtually everything we currently own and enjoy, paid us our wages and
provided
capital for us to improve our productivity, all the while being fully
restrained by hungry competitors (in free markets) — as our enemies from whom
we
need protection. These commonly held but irrational prejudices for government
and against businesses form the very foundation of the political arguments
espoused by professional anticapitalist "thinkers."
And yet, when capitalism has been allowed to flourish to even a moderate
degree, it has succeeded in improving the lives of all involved — rich, poor,
black, white, man, or woman. Only capitalism, with its true free markets
and true freedom for individuals can solve our economic problems and bring
prosperity.
"Capitalism" is neither the Right-wing, crony-capitalism corporate-welfare
economy, nor the anti-rich, wealth-redistribution social-welfare economy
that we have today. In a truly capitalist society businesses never receive
money or special privileges from government: they succeed if they please
consumers in offering them what they want, and they fail if they do not. By
the
same token, in a truly capitalist society, individuals never receive
special privileges or transfer payments. Instead, they have an abundance of
jobs
and of wages commensurate with the value of their work (more than a
"living wage").
Real economics (i.e., free-market economics) proves that under capitalism,
it is virtually impossible for things like inflation, shortages, booms and
busts, recessions, unemployment, starvation, and unaffordable healthcare
to exist. [ complete nonsense -BR comment ] Competition and the threat
of competition serve as iron-clad shackles on companies. On the one hand,
it prevents them from underpaying, overcharging, or under-supplying. On the
other hand, it assures that they guarantee the safest, lowest-priced,
highest-quality products that can possibly be produced at any particular state
of technology and development.
"When capitalism has been allowed to flourish to even a moderate degree, it
has succeeded in improving the lives of all involved — rich, poor, black,
white, man, or woman."
The Case for Legalizing Capitalism begins with the economic basics,
explaining labor, production, exchange, savings, trade, and economic
progression.
In the process, many common anticapitalist arguments are disproven — that
labor is exploited, that some involuntary unemployment is "natural," that
outsourcing is harmful, that we should "buy American," that we need "energy
independence," that sweatshops and child labor should be extinguished, that
there is an economic threat from China, and that jobs or companies should
be protected.
In the second section, having laid out a solid explanation of how free
markets work, I analyze how government has interfered in the marketplace and
caused the very problems for which the free market is commonly blamed.
Banking and the business cycle are given a thorough examination so as to
demonstrate that our government-sponsored banking system is artificial,
unnecessary, and the sole source of our economic crises and recessions.
Plus, I explain why our most screwed-up industries — including healthcare,
airlines, and oil — function so ineffectively, and why regulations such as
price controls, government-granted monopolies, the restriction of
production, and the prevention of business competition and of free exchange
between
enterprises and consumers only harm consumers (i.e., all of us), while
benefiting select government-favored companies.
In the third section I compare the historical results of government
management versus free markets. I look at several "case studies" of relatively
free markets that were ruined by government manipulation and control,
including the Great Depression, the fall of the Roman Empire, and the
transition of
various countries to communism.
Then, through comparisons of free versus unfree countries from an empirical
and statistical viewpoint, I show the direct correlation between free
markets and higher standards of living. Also in this section, I examine the
concept of the evil corporation in order to reveal that corporations — unless
given the power by government to do so — can not only not harm us but can
only benefit us.
In the fourth section I take a deep dive into several special topics:
morality, war, and environmentalism. A core tenet of leftists' promotion of
socialism is that it is moral, while capitalism is immoral. Not only do I show
this is completely opposite from the truth, but I reveal that socialists
are hypocritical, dishonest, thieving, and harm those they are supposedly
trying to help (usually themselves). In a large subsection, I address the
causes of and solutions to poverty in detail.
The notions that most wars are needed, that they keep us safe, and that
they are justified, are, through historical examples, carefully disproven. In
addition to providing a strong case for secession of individual groups or
geographical areas from their current national rulers, I also develop
original arguments advocating antipatriotism and the intentional dismantling
of
individual countries, including our own.
Finally, due to popular "green" sentiments that threaten to halt or reverse
our economic progression, I lay out the case that, first, the environment
is in better shape than we think (and improving!), and that, second,
whether global warming is real or not, we will be better off through
increasing,
not decreasing, carbon emissions.
In the final section of the book I put together all the knowledge obtained
thus far so as to enable the reader to assess our current social and
economic policies as well as the current misguided world view of
anticapitalism.
I refute Keynesianism's basic and most important arguments — including the
idea that GDP is a relevant economic indicator — showing that the world
works in opposite fashion to what most recognized economists today argue.
Finally, I explain popular news headlines/stories in terms of their real
political and economic significance — insights that are usually obscured due
to a
lack of economic knowledge on the part of both writers and readers.
Major running themes in the book include such notions as
1. Regulation does not usually protect consumers, but merely benefits
one group at the expense of another; [ horse poop --BR comment ]
2. Redistributing wealth cannot possibly benefit the receivers in the
longer term, but only hurt them; [ what a joke --BR comment ]
3. Politicians cannot help us economically, they have no idea what
they are doing, and they don't care anyway, since their goal is simply to buy
votes by selling the property of others. [ I could not possibly agree more
-BR comment ]
Most importantly, I argue that if we citizens better understood real
economic cause and effect, we would not only have the power to demand
beneficial
policies from our politicians, but, because they will give us whatever we
want if we put them in power, we could actually compel them to allow freedom
and thereby improve the lives of everyone.
I hope that you enjoy the book, that it brings some true "enlightenment,"
and that it serves in some degree to help turn the tide against the
destructive anti-human-progress thinking so prevalent in today's world.
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
