Capitalism?
Is it really as simple as blaming these problems on capitalism? If one defines capitalism as an economic arrangement of private property rights and the freedom to justly acquire, use, and dispose of property, then how is the following in any way capitalism?
Crisis — Created by central banks, either privately run but sanctioned by the state or directly run by the state, causing a cycle of booms and busts that sends economies into recession and/or depression.
War — Created by the state, enabled in part by corporate collusion with the state as well as central bank inflationary policies that create money out of thin air.
Poverty — Exacerbated by the state through government welfare programs, perpetuating the plight of the poor by making them dependant on the state for their survival, as well as through increased barriers of entry to the market such as taxes, regulations, and minimum wage, preventing the poor from helping themselves.
Corruption — Enabled by the state, fed by collusion between politicians and special interest groups.
Exploitation — Enabled by the state.
Inequality — See exploitation.
Pollution — See inequality.
Depletion — Enabled by the state mainly through inadequate property rights. Resource extraction becomes destructive thanks to governments leasing land for mining or logging rights rather than selling the land outright. With no incentive to maintain the value of the land, corporations deplete all the natural resources they can and move on.
Waste — Derived from the statist Keynesian idea that in order to stimulate the economy one must spend rather than save, the cultural phenomenon that pervades the world today is one of excess and extravagance, rather than conserving resources and maximising lone-term benefit.
Climate — Not much to say here except that more evidence is required before one can say with a high degree of certainty that human action is affecting the climate. It is important to question the political and economic motives of those pushing for anthropogenic climate change theory when it entails increased power for the state and its corporate cronies.
When politics is so interwoven into economics, we are no longer talking about simple capitalism. It would be more accurate to describe what we have today as state capitalism, crony capitalism, corporatism, or fascism. Similarly, when one examines capitalism absent the state, it would be more accurate to call it stateless capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism, or anarcho-capitalism.
(Source: amodernmanifesto, via thinksquad)
What is labor without capital? The Foundation for Economic Education tells us why we should celebrate both!
SHARE this graphic with your friends!Good question.
Technically we do have a capitalism day. What do you think Thanksgiving is really about, after all? The harvest was only successful because each were given their own land and encouraged to compete against one another. That is capitalism. At the end they were so grateful to have so much food they declared a feast and marked it a day of celebration. Unfortunately, everybody just uses it to whine on and on about racism and stealing things from people who don’t own them. ActualCapitalismDay would be much cooler though, agreed.
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Do not be misled by the oft-made contention that the actual cause of highway fatalities is speed, drunkenness, vehicle malfunction, driver error, etc. These are only proximate causes. The ultimate cause of our dying like flies in traffic accidents is that those who own and manage these assets supposedly in the name of the public — the various roads bureaucrats — cannot manage their way out of the proverbial paper bag. It is they and they alone who are responsible for this carnage.
This does not mean that, were thoroughfares placed in private hands, the death toll would be zero. It would not. But, at least, every time the life of someone was tragically snuffed out, someone in a position to ameliorate these dangerous conditions would lose money, and this tends, wonderfully, to focus the minds of the owners. This is why we do not have similar problems with bananas, baskets, and bicycles, or the myriad other goods and services supplied to us by a (relatively) free-enterprise system.
If the highways were now commercial ventures, as once in our history they were, and upward of 40,000 people were killed on them annually, you can bet your bottom dollar that Ted Kennedy and his ilk would be holding Senate hearings on the matter. Blamed would be “capitalism,” “markets,” “greed,” i.e., the usual suspects. But it is the public authorities who are responsible for this slaughter of the innocents.
"Walter Block, A Future of Private Roads and Highways (via conza)
More Hypocrisy: Obama’s top fundraising bundler is a Bain Capital outsourcer
Oh, this is just getting ridiculous. First we find out that Obama has $450,00 invested in companies that outsource jobs overseas. Now, even as the Obama campaign continues to accuse Mitt Romney of outsourcing jobs while at Bain, we find out that it wasn’t Romney at the helm during the period in question- it was Obama’s top Bundler Jonathan Levine.
from ABC News:
The Obama campaign’s latest attack tells the story of workers at an Indiana office supply company who lost their jobs after a Bain-owned company named American Pad & Paper (Ampad) took over their company and drove it out of business.
Here’s what the Obama Web video doesn’t mention: A top Obama donor and fundraiser had a much more direct tie to the controversy and actually served on the board of directors at Richardson, Texas-based Ampad, which makes office paper products.
Jonathan Lavine is a long-time Bain Capital executive and co-owner of the Boston Celtics. He is also one of President Obama’s most prolific fundraisers. He has alreadyraised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaignthis election, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Lavine started working for Bain in 1993. He was one of three Bain executives who served on the board of directors of Ampad for several years, a post he held until 1999. Here’s anews release announcing his departurefrom the company in April 1999.
Lavine’s placement on the board of Ampad suggests he had a more direct role than Romney in the series of events surrounding the layoffs, labor disputes and eventual bankruptcy of the Marion, Ind., factory featured in the Obama campaign video.
Obama’s narrative continues to crumble, and Democrat hypocrisy plays no small part.
We first read about this story on Gateway Pundit where Jim Hoft is doing some of the best Conservative politics blogging out there.
NO SUCH THING AS CRONY CAPITALISM. MOVE ALONG. DOESN’T EXIST.
(Source: astarrynightandopenroadishope, via 32830)
I wish this would have been revealed during her lifetime, so that she would have been forced to write a 1200 page long book about how hypocrisy is the trait of a strong virtuous individual.
“The same moral principles and considerations apply to the issue of accepting social security, unemployment insurance, or other payments of that kind. It is obvious, in such cases, that a man receives his own money which was taken from him by force, directly and specifically, without his consent, against his own choice. Those who advocated such laws are morally guilty, since they assumed the “right” to force employers and unwilling co-workers. But the victims, who opposed such laws, have a clear right to any refund of their own money—and they would not advance the cause of freedom if they left their money, unclaimed, for the benefit of the welfare-state administration.”
-Ayn Rand, 1966
^
(via 32830)
This is almost as retarded as the “If Libertarians Were House Pets” cartoon in which liberals accidentally revealed their opinion of human beings as wild animals who need to be trained and mastered. Just to clear things up, I’ll take the bait.
1. Slavery: An institution — officially sanctioned by the government — against which an incredibly diverse group of people fought in the South (e.g., Confederacy General Robert E. Lee) and in the North (e.g., Lysander Spooner). Not only did General Lee believe that slavery would disappear without the the Civil War’s 700,000 death count, Lysander Spooner and many others believed that the North should have actively seceded in order to ignore the South-led Fugitive Slave Act. And it’s worth noting that slavery was enforced through keepings guns away from blacks (see: “The Discriminatory History of Gun Control”). This is a pretty big difference from Abraham Lincoln, who wasn’t an abolitionist and, in fact, wanted to ship blacks out of the country.
2. Child Labor: We had a discussion about this topic the other day. Child labor is the result of underdevelopment, not greedy businessmen. It’ll always exist in countries that ignore capitalism through continued use of inefficient production methods. When Henry Hazlitt writes, “Primitive tribes are naked, and wretchedly fed and housed, but they do not suffer from unemployment,” it includes the employment of children. The further away you get from primitive communities — through advances in technology, accumulation of capital, etc. — the further away you get from children in the work force.
3. No Suffrage for Women: I’m not sure how to answer this one since I don’t believe in mob rule (often deemed “democracy”). Voting is a legal privilege created by the government and given to certain groups people. This kind of discrimination still occurs. Teenagers under 18 can still work for a paycheck yet are refused a ballot despite paying taxes, easily constituting taxation without representation. If the ultimate goal of Election Day is each individual having as much of a say over his or her own life as possible, why don’t we aim for individualistic liberty in which no voting occurs?
4. Segregation: Segregation is the act of forcibly keeping people apart. In other words, a segregationist blocks individuals from doing business with each other. Perhaps we no longer segregate based on race and sex, but the government certainly segregates in terms of nationality on the border front. The government, too, prohibits certain transactions depending upon the state in which you live. This is an extremely different concept than discrimination, which would be legal in a libertarian society in accordance with private property rights and self-ownership (see: Walter Block’s “The Case for Discrimination”).
Marriage is a fantastic tradition that gained legitimacy without government interference. It’ll stay a fantastic tradition without government interference, too.
To quote Benjamin Tucker,
The Anarchists believe in the family; they only insist that free competition and experiment shall always be allowed in order that it may be determined what form of family best secures this object.That’s what freedom is all about.
(Source: gaywrites)
(Source: anarchei)
"A businessman’s success depends on his intelligence, his knowledge, his productive ability, his economic judgment—and on the voluntary agreement of all those he deals with: his customers, his suppliers, his employees, his creditors or investors. A bureaucrat’s success depends on his political pull. A businessman cannot force you to buy his product; if he makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences; if he fails, he takes the loss. A bureaucrat forces you to obey his decisions, whether you agree with him or not—and the more advanced the stage of a country’s statism, the wider and more discretionary the powers wielded by a bureaucrat. If he makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences; if he fails, he passes the loss on to you, in the form of heavier taxes."
Ayn Rand (via the-capitalist)
(via moralanarchism)
Corporatism
Download: CorporatismPoster.png (152 kB)
Because capitalism isn’t an accurate term to describe what occurs today. Based on the wise words of Baseball Libertarian.
"The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit."
Milton Friedman (via learnliberty)
"You should message me if: you agree that capitalism should be abolished."
(Source: peopleandmore, via cowboy-robot-deactivated2012082)
