Capitalism is not a “cute theory” like communism. It’s reality.
17 Replies to “This is Not the “End of Capitalism””
What type of capitalism do you mean? Darwinian/Libertarian Capitalism, regulated Capitalism with legal controls such as Anti-trust and Insider Trading legislation or government controlled Capitalism (such as in modern “communist” China)?
Capitalism is not a black and white term.
True enough captain. The end occurred a long long time ago. Rumours of the recent death of capitalism, over which you are in deep denial and over which the socialists are gloating, is a stale-dated obtituary.
If capitalism is so bad, then why are defectors always defecting from communist countries and entering (legally or not) into capitalist countries?
no, me no dhimmi, capitalism hasn’t died. And can’t die. That’s because it is, as noted, reality. It’s not an intellectual theory; it’s based in the hardiness of finite ‘people and things’.
As noted, capitalism, or reality, means that if we create something that works, it’s a success. If it doesn’t work, it’s not a success.
Socialism on the other hand, funds the maker of the product, and purchases the goods whether they are functional or not. This is found in arts and culture as well as Bombardier products. It taxes the citizens for this task.
Capitalism leaves it up to the producers and consumers to make those decisions. That means, that capitalism is based around a middle class. That’s individuals who are free to think, debate, be innovative and entrepreneurial.
Socialism is the opposite. It’s two-classed; an bureaucratic Elite – and the rest of us. The problem with socialism is that it cannot innovate or enable entrepreneurship. Therefore, socialism decays a society, while capitalism energizes it.
Who said it?
Capitalism may be the uneven distribution of wealth but socialism is certainly the even distribution of misery.
How true
Friend of USA, I guess all the people calling for the death of capitalism don’t understand that economic freedom is highly linked to low poverty and high wealth among other things.
I am conflicted over the bailout plan…on the one hand, unless the financial markets are stabilized somehow, the consequences could be far more serious than what we are currently experiencing…in short…complete chaos. On the other hand, I’m generally not in favour of the government rewarding incompetence.
In a recent column, Dianne Francis quoted a US analyst named James Grant: “Capitalism without financial failure is not capitalism at al, but a kind of socialism for the rich.”
Fits into the category of “things I wish I had said”.
No, this is not the end of capitalism. That will only occur in Canada if the Nutty Professor, Taliban Jack, or Hezb’Allah Hanna (aka Elizabeth May) have their way.
Capitalism isn’t a “system”.Capitalism is what happens when free people are left to their own devices.
“Capitalism” itself is a Marxist term and I think what most of us would understand by it is in fact a “market economy”. As Hernando de Soto pointed out in his book, “The Mystery of Capital”, market economies are anything but unregulated. But the distinction between a market economy and socialism is the distinction between regulated versus directed. In other words it’s one thing to create regulations governing how one conducts economic transactions, leaving the individual to decide wether or not to enter into the transaction in the first place. It’s another thing to order or mandate the transaction and the terms of it a la socialism. Socialism has been a colossal failure wherever it has been practiced. The reason for that lies in its inherent bureaucratic inefficiencies, susceptibility to political manipulation, and squelching of incentives to productivity.
Market economies are not perfect and market failures do occur, as this fiasco has shown. However, market failures are far less frequent and far less severe than the bureaucratic failures of socialism vis: the “Great Leap Forward” (20 million dead), the Ukrainian famines etc.
Perfect markets assume perfect information; and efficient markets require a high level of good information. Market failures are more likely when first, transactions are mandated contrary to the inherent economic sense of those transactions (thank Jimmuh Cartuh for that) and when information is badly degraded or confused (thank the repackaging, and bundling of sub-prime mortgages sold for what they were not i.e. solidly backed debts). The result is as we see. Still, despite this market failure, as Friend of USA has pointed out, I’ve yet to see a mass exodus of people from the US to North Korea or Cuba.
The corollary of this would indicate a solution. First, eliminate all regulations mandating transactions such as the regulations mandating the offering of mortgages or other loans to those who would not otherwise qualify for them. Second, tighten regulations regarding the packaging and sale of debt instruments so that the buyer can be crystal clear about what it is they are buying. After that — caveat emptor!
Western Canadian:
I think Churchill said something along those lines.
Sidebar: Would like to see Barrack “the Great Orator” stand up in the House and go toe to toe with Sir Winston (God rest him).
Communism is a solution designed for a problem that never occured.
What most people call capitalism isnt.When the industrial revolution started with the invention of the steam engine,great amounts of money were needed to build the factories and buy the raw materials with a lag time between the building of the factory and a cash flow.The money was borrowed from the banks at a higher and higher interest rate because of the sudden demand and many businesses failed because of this lag time.Someone,in order to get around this problem,went directly to people bypassing the banks,and said “I will give you a share in my company instead of interest as there will be no cash flow during start up.You will be a part owner of the company and when we make money you will receive a return on investment equal to or greater than interest rates AND because of the increase in value of our company your share will also go up in value”.People accepted that and some did really well thus encouraging others to try this new form of investing.The idea was started many years ago by ship owners that had investers paying for cargo rather than lose the cargo to the banks if the ships were delayed.
Let’s not confuse capitalism with the US empire, or even Wall Street.
The empire is sinking.
Capitalism remains.
It is not capitalism that is doomed, it is Democratic Capitalism. Partial regulation is what happened in the California energy debacle. They fixed consumer prices, stopped building new power plants, and deregulated supply prices, then acted surprised at the results and blamed greed.
Now the government forced lenders to make bad loans because it was the only way to get loans made in certain neighborhoods in the US. Then deregulated the rest of the market. And the second huge collapse of partially regulated market takes place.
I don’t see how, given the political realities, such practices will ever stop. Democratic Capitalism has always been doomed. I can’t see anything but a world-wide, deep recession, in our future, as this shakes out. As people who pay on time and actually pay taxes get the bill for people who do neither, and they wonder what is the point of working so hard, and then stop.
Bush fils is to blame. Clinton is to blame. Bush per is to blame. Reagan is to blame. Congress is to blame. None of them are to blame. The system can’t work anymore.
Obama will only make it worse. McCain, I just don’t know. Whatever, the punch bowl will be empty and a lot of the promises made will go away with huge deficits. I know one Wall Street banker personally, and he lost tens of millions of dollars, but guess what? he still has tens of millions of dollars, stolen in this Casino Royale of our recent economy. He is an ardent Democrat and gave the maximum to Chris Dodd for president, BTW.
I no longer think the US style of government can work long term. 220 years. I can’t believe I am saying this, but it is now how I feel. We have exptremely powereful congressman who have national importance and can only be removed by their home district of half a million or so, which they can buy off with largess of the federal treasury til they die. The system is unaccountable.
A couple of comments: the statement “socialism is certainly the even distribution of misery” is not, in general, correct. Socialist governments tend to be as corrupt and class-ridden as the worst nonsocialist governments. In particular, the former Soviet Union was governed by an elite, the Nomenklatura, who did very well out of it.
But even in Canada, the NDP government of Barrett [?] in BC was not a model to be followed in any way, and indeed was thrown out of office when opportunity presented.
As for the Industrial Revolution, it is worth remembering that for the workers who took part in it, and who lived in such miserable conditions, the miserable conditions were still better than the rural poverty they came from. More picturesque, as someone commented, but worse.
“The empire is sinking.
Capitalism remains.”
Let’s not confuse the US Empire with empire.
The US is sinking, maybe, empire remains. Name a time in human history without without it. Say hello to the new boss, China or Russia.
What type of capitalism do you mean? Darwinian/Libertarian Capitalism, regulated Capitalism with legal controls such as Anti-trust and Insider Trading legislation or government controlled Capitalism (such as in modern “communist” China)?
Capitalism is not a black and white term.
True enough captain. The end occurred a long long time ago. Rumours of the recent death of capitalism, over which you are in deep denial and over which the socialists are gloating, is a stale-dated obtituary.
If capitalism is so bad, then why are defectors always defecting from communist countries and entering (legally or not) into capitalist countries?
no, me no dhimmi, capitalism hasn’t died. And can’t die. That’s because it is, as noted, reality. It’s not an intellectual theory; it’s based in the hardiness of finite ‘people and things’.
As noted, capitalism, or reality, means that if we create something that works, it’s a success. If it doesn’t work, it’s not a success.
Socialism on the other hand, funds the maker of the product, and purchases the goods whether they are functional or not. This is found in arts and culture as well as Bombardier products. It taxes the citizens for this task.
Capitalism leaves it up to the producers and consumers to make those decisions. That means, that capitalism is based around a middle class. That’s individuals who are free to think, debate, be innovative and entrepreneurial.
Socialism is the opposite. It’s two-classed; an bureaucratic Elite – and the rest of us. The problem with socialism is that it cannot innovate or enable entrepreneurship. Therefore, socialism decays a society, while capitalism energizes it.
Who said it?
Capitalism may be the uneven distribution of wealth but socialism is certainly the even distribution of misery.
How true
Friend of USA, I guess all the people calling for the death of capitalism don’t understand that economic freedom is highly linked to low poverty and high wealth among other things.
I am conflicted over the bailout plan…on the one hand, unless the financial markets are stabilized somehow, the consequences could be far more serious than what we are currently experiencing…in short…complete chaos. On the other hand, I’m generally not in favour of the government rewarding incompetence.
In a recent column, Dianne Francis quoted a US analyst named James Grant: “Capitalism without financial failure is not capitalism at al, but a kind of socialism for the rich.”
Fits into the category of “things I wish I had said”.
No, this is not the end of capitalism. That will only occur in Canada if the Nutty Professor, Taliban Jack, or Hezb’Allah Hanna (aka Elizabeth May) have their way.
Capitalism isn’t a “system”.Capitalism is what happens when free people are left to their own devices.
“Capitalism” itself is a Marxist term and I think what most of us would understand by it is in fact a “market economy”. As Hernando de Soto pointed out in his book, “The Mystery of Capital”, market economies are anything but unregulated. But the distinction between a market economy and socialism is the distinction between regulated versus directed. In other words it’s one thing to create regulations governing how one conducts economic transactions, leaving the individual to decide wether or not to enter into the transaction in the first place. It’s another thing to order or mandate the transaction and the terms of it a la socialism. Socialism has been a colossal failure wherever it has been practiced. The reason for that lies in its inherent bureaucratic inefficiencies, susceptibility to political manipulation, and squelching of incentives to productivity.
Market economies are not perfect and market failures do occur, as this fiasco has shown. However, market failures are far less frequent and far less severe than the bureaucratic failures of socialism vis: the “Great Leap Forward” (20 million dead), the Ukrainian famines etc.
Perfect markets assume perfect information; and efficient markets require a high level of good information. Market failures are more likely when first, transactions are mandated contrary to the inherent economic sense of those transactions (thank Jimmuh Cartuh for that) and when information is badly degraded or confused (thank the repackaging, and bundling of sub-prime mortgages sold for what they were not i.e. solidly backed debts). The result is as we see. Still, despite this market failure, as Friend of USA has pointed out, I’ve yet to see a mass exodus of people from the US to North Korea or Cuba.
The corollary of this would indicate a solution. First, eliminate all regulations mandating transactions such as the regulations mandating the offering of mortgages or other loans to those who would not otherwise qualify for them. Second, tighten regulations regarding the packaging and sale of debt instruments so that the buyer can be crystal clear about what it is they are buying. After that — caveat emptor!
Western Canadian:
I think Churchill said something along those lines.
Sidebar: Would like to see Barrack “the Great Orator” stand up in the House and go toe to toe with Sir Winston (God rest him).
Communism is a solution designed for a problem that never occured.
What most people call capitalism isnt.When the industrial revolution started with the invention of the steam engine,great amounts of money were needed to build the factories and buy the raw materials with a lag time between the building of the factory and a cash flow.The money was borrowed from the banks at a higher and higher interest rate because of the sudden demand and many businesses failed because of this lag time.Someone,in order to get around this problem,went directly to people bypassing the banks,and said “I will give you a share in my company instead of interest as there will be no cash flow during start up.You will be a part owner of the company and when we make money you will receive a return on investment equal to or greater than interest rates AND because of the increase in value of our company your share will also go up in value”.People accepted that and some did really well thus encouraging others to try this new form of investing.The idea was started many years ago by ship owners that had investers paying for cargo rather than lose the cargo to the banks if the ships were delayed.
Let’s not confuse capitalism with the US empire, or even Wall Street.
The empire is sinking.
Capitalism remains.
It is not capitalism that is doomed, it is Democratic Capitalism. Partial regulation is what happened in the California energy debacle. They fixed consumer prices, stopped building new power plants, and deregulated supply prices, then acted surprised at the results and blamed greed.
Now the government forced lenders to make bad loans because it was the only way to get loans made in certain neighborhoods in the US. Then deregulated the rest of the market. And the second huge collapse of partially regulated market takes place.
I don’t see how, given the political realities, such practices will ever stop. Democratic Capitalism has always been doomed. I can’t see anything but a world-wide, deep recession, in our future, as this shakes out. As people who pay on time and actually pay taxes get the bill for people who do neither, and they wonder what is the point of working so hard, and then stop.
Bush fils is to blame. Clinton is to blame. Bush per is to blame. Reagan is to blame. Congress is to blame. None of them are to blame. The system can’t work anymore.
Obama will only make it worse. McCain, I just don’t know. Whatever, the punch bowl will be empty and a lot of the promises made will go away with huge deficits. I know one Wall Street banker personally, and he lost tens of millions of dollars, but guess what? he still has tens of millions of dollars, stolen in this Casino Royale of our recent economy. He is an ardent Democrat and gave the maximum to Chris Dodd for president, BTW.
I no longer think the US style of government can work long term. 220 years. I can’t believe I am saying this, but it is now how I feel. We have exptremely powereful congressman who have national importance and can only be removed by their home district of half a million or so, which they can buy off with largess of the federal treasury til they die. The system is unaccountable.
A couple of comments: the statement “socialism is certainly the even distribution of misery” is not, in general, correct. Socialist governments tend to be as corrupt and class-ridden as the worst nonsocialist governments. In particular, the former Soviet Union was governed by an elite, the Nomenklatura, who did very well out of it.
But even in Canada, the NDP government of Barrett [?] in BC was not a model to be followed in any way, and indeed was thrown out of office when opportunity presented.
As for the Industrial Revolution, it is worth remembering that for the workers who took part in it, and who lived in such miserable conditions, the miserable conditions were still better than the rural poverty they came from. More picturesque, as someone commented, but worse.
“The empire is sinking.
Capitalism remains.”
Let’s not confuse the US Empire with empire.
The US is sinking, maybe, empire remains. Name a time in human history without without it. Say hello to the new boss, China or Russia.