Why Capitalism Is Morally Superior to Socialism
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Free market capitalism in America has been so successful in eliminating the traditional problems of mankind—such as disease, pestilence, hunger, and gross poverty—that all other human problems appear both unbearable and inexcusable. (Photo: Ultima_Gaina/Getty Images)
Several recent polls, plus the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., demonstrate that young people prefer socialism to free market capitalism.
That, I believe, is a result of their ignorance and indoctrination during their school years, from kindergarten through college. For the most part, neither they nor many of their teachers and professors know what free market capitalism is.
Free market capitalism, wherein there is peaceful voluntary exchange, is morally superior to any other economic system. Why? Let’s start with my initial premise.
All of us own ourselves. I am my private property, and you are yours. Murder, rape, theft, and the initiation of violence are immoral because they violate self-ownership. Similarly, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another person, for any reason, is immoral because it violates self-ownership.
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Tragically, two-thirds to three-quarters of the federal budget can be described as Congress taking the rightful earnings of one American to give to another American—using one American to serve another. Such acts include farm subsidies, business bailouts, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, and many other programs.
Free market capitalism is disfavored by many Americans—and threatened—not because of its failure but, ironically, because of its success. Free market capitalism in America has been so successful in eliminating the traditional problems of mankind—such as disease, pestilence, hunger, and gross poverty—that all other human problems appear both unbearable and inexcusable.
The desire by many Americans to eliminate these so-called unbearable and inexcusable problems has led to the call for socialism. That call includes equality of income, sex, and race balance; affordable housing and medical care; orderly markets; and many other socialistic ideas.
Let’s compare capitalism with socialism by answering the following questions: In which areas of our lives do we find the greatest satisfaction, and in which do we find the greatest dissatisfaction?
It turns out that we seldom find people upset with and in conflict with computer and clothing stores, supermarkets, and hardware stores. We do see people highly dissatisfied with and often in conflict with boards of education, motor vehicles departments, police, and city sanitation services.
What are the differences? For one, the motivation for the provision of services of computer and clothing stores, supermarkets, and hardware stores is profit. Also, if you’re dissatisfied with their services, you can instantaneously fire them by taking your business elsewhere.
It’s a different matter with public education, motor vehicles departments, police, and city sanitation services. They are not motivated by profit at all. Plus, if you’re dissatisfied with their service, it is costly and in many cases, even impossible to fire them.
A much larger and totally ignored question has to do with the brutality of socialism. In the 20th century, the one-party socialist states of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Germany under the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, and the People’s Republic of China were responsible for the murder of 118 million citizens, mostly their own.
The tallies were: USSR, 62 million; Nazi Germany, 21 million; and People’s Republic of China, 35 million. No such record of brutality can be found in countries that tend toward free market capitalism.
Here’s an experiment for you. List countries according to whether they are closer to the free market capitalist or to the socialist/communist end of the economic spectrum. Then rank the countries according to per capita gross domestic product. Finally, rank the countries according to Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World” report.
You will find that people who live in countries closer to the free market capitalist end of the economic spectrum not only have far greater wealth than people who live in countries toward the socialistic/communist end but also enjoy far greater human rights protections.
As Thomas Sowell says, “Socialism sounds great. It has always sounded great. And it will probably always continue to sound great. It is only when you go beyond rhetoric, and start looking at hard facts, that socialism turns out to be a big disappointment, if not a disaster.”
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Making the poor and middle class taxpayer continuously pick up the tab for subsidizing the corporate aristocracy and protecting the wealthy is the teapublican version of socialism.
Projection.
I was ok right up to this part:
That call includes equality of income, sex, and race balance; affordable housing and medical care; orderly markets; and many other socialistic ideas.
then i had to laugh, the premise the author is having at this point is that income inequality of men and women is good, men are superior to women, racism is awesome, people should live in tents and be happy about it, If you get sick sucks to be you, I want to manipulate and cheat the markets, and many more cool things that make the world a better place can suck it.
What a joke, regulated capitalism is good, no one will deny that. It is unadulterated greed and the instance on not using the money and power obtained through capitalism to better all people of your country, that is wrong.
Socialism is a matter of degree. Every country has some social programs, and America has more than most, including her huge, over-bloated, extremely wasteful, 100% socialized military.
How many regressives unabashedly seek the check from those socialist programs, disability benefits, farm aid, tax write offs, those are ok because I earned them it is the others I don't get that are bad.
Okay, I have a problem with the very title of this seed, morality plays no role in either capitalism or socialism. Neither of those ideologies delve into morality, they at no point try to define what is moral and what is not. Claiming one is morally superior to the other is purely a personal perspective, and thus worthless when trying to have an objective discussion about the two. As soon as someone brings morality into it I stop paying attention because now we are debating feelings rather than the objective merits of either system.
And while you rightwingers have been extolling the virtues of the "free market" and the evils of the socialist "command economy" model, ScumptyTrumpty is pushing to force the power grid in this country to buy electricity from coal fired and nuclear power plants. IOW,, to support two dying (of natural market forces) industries in order to get votes from people who won't face economic reality.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/trump-admin-considers-plan-to-bail-out-coal-nuclear-plants/2018/06/01/4734fb4e-65bd-11e8-81ca-bb14593acaa6_story.html?utm_term=.719340f97ed5
It is especially hilarious coming from the person (HA) who sits around here bitching and moaning about private businesses (aka the free market) and censoring conservative voices. Apparently they are free market capitalists until that market does something they dislike.