FREEDOM & LIBERTY
CAPITALISM
Capitalism was of its nature unstable...because its effects in denying sufficiency and security were intolerable to men.
BELLOC, HILAIRE, The Servile State, Introduction
Free enterprise is a way of going about meeting our needs and wants by providing for ourselves or by freely entering into transactions with others. The great regulator of free enterprise is competition.
Simply put, the world of capital sees the decisions coming out of Washington in recent weeks as an attack upon itself. Capital sees the Administration forcing General Motors to fire its executives and wonders when Washington will focus its attention upon foreign capital. Capital sees the decisions to capriciously close hundreds of auto dealerships, without just compensation and at the same time putting the owners of those dealerships in jeopardy and wonders, “When shall Washington turn its attention upon us?” Capital sees the Obama Administration has moving to raise taxes, closing supposed “loopholes,” attacking domestic businesses, and wonders, “When are we next?” Rather than risk the wrath of a left-of-centre regime, capital is fleeing and looking for safer harbors elsewhere around the world. Can it be blamed for doing so? No, it cannot be. Indeed, capital that does not look for safer harbors is capital badly managed.
The fundamental principle of capitalism is the separation of State and Economics.
RAND, AYN, The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Our Age
Free-market economics, a legacy of the classical school, is thought of as an old conservative doctrine. But Mr. Sowell explains that it was in fact one of the most revolutionary concepts to emerge in the history of ideas. Moreover, "the thinking of the classical economist was not only a radical break from landmark intellectual figures like Plato and Machiavelli but also from mainstream thinking to this day."
RILEY, JASON L., Classy Economist, WSJ.COM Opinion Journal, March 25, 2006
I prefer capitalism to the various state-led economic schemes (socialism, communism) because capitalism is the only moral system. Under capitalism, the role of the state is to prevent coercion and safeguard personal property. That's the basis of a civil society. I think it's immoral to take something that doesn't belong to you. Yet at the heart of all the government's plans lies coercion. OBAMA! can only "spread the wealth around" by taking it first. Under capitalism, there is no such central direction and no role for the initiation of force. Instead, capitalism relies on persuasion and the free choices of consumers.
STANSBERRY, PORTER, The S&A Digest, May 4, 2009
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.