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"Dollar Sign" by Andy Warhol
(AP Photo/Martin Lawrence Galleries)
An example of stereotypical anti-
capitalist elitist snobbery from
Wikipedia: "New York's Museum of
Modern Art hosted a symposium on
pop art in December 1962 during
which artists like Warhol were
attacked for 'capitulating' to
consumerism. Critics were
scandalized by Warhol's open
embrace of market culture."
In 300 words or less...
Libertarians believe in capitalism.
Specifically, they believe in laissez-faire capitalism, which is an unnecessary redundancy.
Capitalism simply means freedom of trade. The "laissez-faire" part is a French phrase that means "leave alone," which in this context means government leaving people alone to trade with one another, thus duplicating the word "freedom" in the phrase "freedom of trade."
America, of course, does not and has not had a capitalist-like economy in over a century and has never had the laissez-faire kind at all.
No social system that permits coercive government intervention into the economy can be called capitalism, including faux-capitalist brain burps like mercantilism or mixed economy or corporatism.
The true robber barons of the Robber Baron era were conniving politicians and their co-conspirators in the corporations (legally contrived "fictional persons"). Only real persons like James J. Hill who built the Great Northern Railroad with virtually no taxpayer pelf have the moral right to the title Capitalist.
The true robber barons of today are still conniving politicians and their corporatist crooks. It's an incestuous money laundering relationship in which capitol-occupying crooks transfer money from the public treasury into the hands of corporate cronies who flush it through their business operations and return big chunks of it as "donations" to campaign coffers.
Few folks grasp it today. Most have been trained from infancy to blame the private half of the public/private economy for anything they don't like. They've been conditioned to believe that free people freely trading amongst themselves constitute an evil plot while coercion-wielding government is the cavalry coming to their rescue.
So here's the bottom line: any business that begs intervention of any kind from government isn't a capitalist business; any economic system that allows government intervention into the business realm isn't capitalism.
The non-capitalist shoe fits both feet.
Comments
Hi Garry,
I like permission to quote from this article, please.
Hi Terri, quote away!
"any business that begs intervention of any kind from government isn't a capitalist business; any economic system that allows government intervention into the business realm isn't capitalism."
A couple of question:
1) How do Libertarians propose keeping business and government separate?
2) I presume Libertarians oppose exploitation of persons by both corporations and government. How, for example, will "child labor" be opposed?
3) What do you see in the business landscape if "true capitalism" were to be implemented, e.g., are there more small businesses? Are massive global corps dominant? Are monopolies or powerful oligopolies OK?
Thanks!
Good stuff Garry.
Mark Gragg
Green Jobs Examiner
A couple of question:
1) How do Libertarians propose keeping business and government separate?
--> By restricting government to a tiny ineffectual entity and letting corporations and businesses do almost whatever they want to do if they can figure out how to do it.
2) I presume Libertarians oppose exploitation of persons by both corporations and government. How, for example, will "child labor" be opposed?
--> People are expendable. There is no care of any kind provided for orphans, crippled/disabeled, elderly, etc... except for whatever alms someone might, in passing, decide to give. Those with money will look for ways to organize to provide for themselves and get all that they can in a pure profit driven environment.
3) What do you see in the business landscape if "true capitalism" were to be implemented, e.g., are there more small businesses? Are massive global corps dominant? Are monopolies or powerful oligopolies OK?
--> Libertarians don't believe oligarchy occurs i
To karrsic and Unemployed WASP. Whole books have been written about all this for at least 2 centuries and I can't recap them here. But Googling almost at random, this might be a good starting point: tinyurl.com/ lc7ezb (delete spaces). Capitalism is an economic system. Capitalism doesn't create "child labor," people do. Would there really be "no care of any kind provided for orphans, crippled/disabled, elderly, etc?" Those issues are not capitalism's role; it's your role, and the role of millions of others just like you. You don't demand that your church sell vacuum cleaners, that's not their role, so why do you impose inappropriate roles on capitalism? Free trade means companies of many sizes. Capitalism doesn't determine company size, people do. How to keep business and government separate? Our Constitution writers came close but ultimately failed. They didn't strictly apply the non-coercion principle. For more, you'll have to do your own research as all libertarians have.
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