Capitalism- The World's Greatest Success Story
From my picture on this blog, it is easy to see where I stand on economics. Frankly, I never envisioned a time when I would feel compelled to defend the merits of capitalism. There is simply no other “ism” that has improved peoples standard of living or quality of life more than capitalism. Ever. And it's not even close.
Yet today there are movies being made against it and huge sectors of private industry being gobbled up by the government to “save it”. Capitalism doesn’t need saving. In fact, when free markets have problems, it is government that has caused them as detailed by Steve Forbes in this excellent article: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1019/opinions-steve-forbes-capitalism-true-love-story.html
One of my favorite interviews on capitalism comes from Milton Freidman, economist and American intellectual in this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A
While I find myself dancing on the political tightrope again, the real purpose of this post is to remind people that entrepreneurs will get us out of this mess as they always do. They will create new products, fill needs, and hire people. Government doesn’t need new legislation, spend trillions of our dollars, or play favoritism with silly programs like “Cash for Clunkers”
I’ll close with this paragraph from the article by Steve Forbes on a specific example that illustrates the point well;
“When there is a need, entrepreneurs--appearing seemingly out of nowhere--will step in to fill it.
As one of the literally millions of examples, take what happened in the 1980s, after budget cuts forced the U.S. Coast Guard to scale back on some of its services. The Coast Guard could no longer provide nonemergency marine assistance to recreational boaters. Almost immediately, small entrepreneurs took up the slack. In Southold, N.Y. Captain Joseph J. Frohnhoefer Jr. founded Sea Tow Services International Inc., a AAA-like organization for boaters. His small business grew from a single vessel into a thriving franchise network with 108 locations throughout the U.S., Australia, Europe and the Caribbean.”
Darik
UPDATE 10/29: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car for the Clash for Clunkers program- http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/28/autos/clunkers_analysis/index.htm
Yet today there are movies being made against it and huge sectors of private industry being gobbled up by the government to “save it”. Capitalism doesn’t need saving. In fact, when free markets have problems, it is government that has caused them as detailed by Steve Forbes in this excellent article: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1019/opinions-steve-forbes-capitalism-true-love-story.html
One of my favorite interviews on capitalism comes from Milton Freidman, economist and American intellectual in this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A
While I find myself dancing on the political tightrope again, the real purpose of this post is to remind people that entrepreneurs will get us out of this mess as they always do. They will create new products, fill needs, and hire people. Government doesn’t need new legislation, spend trillions of our dollars, or play favoritism with silly programs like “Cash for Clunkers”
I’ll close with this paragraph from the article by Steve Forbes on a specific example that illustrates the point well;
“When there is a need, entrepreneurs--appearing seemingly out of nowhere--will step in to fill it.
As one of the literally millions of examples, take what happened in the 1980s, after budget cuts forced the U.S. Coast Guard to scale back on some of its services. The Coast Guard could no longer provide nonemergency marine assistance to recreational boaters. Almost immediately, small entrepreneurs took up the slack. In Southold, N.Y. Captain Joseph J. Frohnhoefer Jr. founded Sea Tow Services International Inc., a AAA-like organization for boaters. His small business grew from a single vessel into a thriving franchise network with 108 locations throughout the U.S., Australia, Europe and the Caribbean.”
Darik
UPDATE 10/29: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car for the Clash for Clunkers program- http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/28/autos/clunkers_analysis/index.htm
posted by Darik Volpa at
2:50 PM
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