What Makes Capitalism Work

Each criticism is partly correct. Nevertheless, the critics are barking up the wrong tree.

Robert Cooper, a former British diplomat now working for the European Union, says in “The Mystery of Development,” an article in the February issue of Prospect Magazine, “The capitalist economy is not ... about economics; economics may describe how it works and may guide central bankers and other officials in regulating it. But what makes the capitalist economy work is law.”

Indeed. What makes privatization, or concessions of public utilities granted to private interests, work or not work, to benefit their captive customers, is the working or not working of the legal framework and the regulatory environment.

When rule of law is not properly applied, when regulations favor the operator, or when there’s inadequate supervision and enforcement of regulations, the customer loses.

This is true in the United States, in Mexico, and in Ethiopia...

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cheap labour will make political system work ie a slave and peasant class usually does the trick

 

Which current day capitalist country are you referring to?

As far as Capitalist America,do you see large numbers of Americans migrating out of America to "escape" from capitalism?

 

all

 

Capitalism doesn't work. Abolish Capitalism!

 

that's pretty much true.... for an example of capatalism without a well structured law to protect it, just look at modern brazil, where a teeny tiny percentage of the population own and control the majority of the economic wealth.....

capatalism, in it's purest form is a joke, and even with a well managed and structured law system it is only a temporary social/economic system at best ....... for us to be allowed to gain independant wealth/property (everyone wants the next house they buy to be bigger/have their children better educated/a more powerful vehicle and their entertainment to become ever more varied etc) ... then we require infinite resources, and an affordable standard of living... or it becomes the "have's v's the have-nots" ....... and, of course, there is no infinite supply of any resource..... and we need the law to control those who supply the resources, or as they diminish, they simply become economically unavailable to all but a select few (the rich).....

 

GREED makes capitalism work - for capitalists...the thing is capitalism must crush beneath it the disadvantaged, those that cannot compete - and so capitalism as a system has a fatal flaw, because it is not a fully human, i.e. humane form of enterprise.

as in all cases, after much suffering the people rise and take their power. Gandhi showed that guns cannot stop it, or bombs, or laws, or jails, well...Jesus showed it.

 

Or you could say self-interest and competition is what makes capitalism work also.

Why does Toyota make the best cars? Because it's in their self-interest(greed) to do so because it competes for your dollars with Ford.

So self-interest(greed) along with competition for consumers is what also makes capitalism work. If there was no competition what do you think the quality of most cars and other products would be like?

 

What makes capitalism work is willingness to brutally exploit all others for minor personal gain,
along with a total lack of conscience after the fact.

What makes capitalism work is the same thing that makes people join the army
and put bullets in each others' heads~ severe mental stagnation...

 

Also, as for competition and greed creating higher quality products,
~Quakers are renowned for their high-quality products;
tribes all over the world, from africa to asia to australia,
make goods totally unrivaled by modern capitalist manufacturing-
where people are only in it for the dollar profit.

If true capitalism even existed,
we'd all be dead from toxic degeneration of our homes
and severe food poisoning

 

word

 

capitalism = material waste

 

Capitalism dwells on humanity's negative traits.

What is best and who defines best?

Competition reduces quality, don't you know? Why do you think the open source/free software movement creates/form superior software than commercilized software? Simply there is no profit motive and people's self-interests do not clash, they cooperate to build good quality software. People do things everyday without money as a incentive.

 

Whoot for freeware <(^_^<) <(^_^)> (>^_^)>

 

Can you provide an example of a capitalist country,that fits the common definition of capitalism,where this is happening?

 

Yes people can produce quality items when competition and profit aren't a part of the picture.

Taking pride in quality items can be part of a peoples tradition. The Japanese are also known for quality because taking pride in doing things well is a part of their tradition and culture. This attitude seems to carry over into the Japanese approach to business and product quality.

 

Capitalism works because it's based on greed, which everyone has. Not everybody is a self-serving asshole, so conservatism can't work. And most people are assholes, which is why communism doesn't work.

 

This is completely true!!! If there is no good enforcement of regulations - the capitalism is working very bad, very wrong.

 

Somalia

 

Wow ... sad.

Capitalism as a socioeconomic system stems from the free and voluntary exchange of property titles amongst people who, ex ante (looking forward), anticipate a benefit from the exchange.

For example, you have a bicycle and I have a guitar. You subjectively value the guitar more than the bicycle and I subjectively value the bicycle more than the guitar. Therefore, an exchange will take place, and we will both be better off.

Capitalism, at it's core, is a system of voluntary association and unrestricted trade. It utilizes a division of specialized labor in an effort to bring about prosperity to mankind. If I am better at growing wheat, and you are better at obtaining clean water, we will trade wheat for water, and both enjoy a higher standard of living.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, distinguished professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has provided an excellent description of the origins of Capitalism in his Essay, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism". You can read the essay here: http://www.mises.org/etexts/Soc&Cap.pdf

The situation in Somalia is sad. Warlords are fighting against a weak "imposed" government out of fear that it may become a strong and oppressive government. This is entirely outside the realms of Capitalism as a socioeconomic system.

And despite the fighting, the markets in Somalia are strong and getting stronger. Even the CIA factbook states:

"Despite the seeming anarchy, Somalia's service sector has managed to survive and grow. Telecommunication firms provide wireless services in most major cities and offer the lowest international call rates on the continent. In the absence of a formal banking sector, money exchange services have sprouted throughout the country, handling between $500 million and $1 billion in remittances annually. Mogadishu's main market offers a variety of goods from food to the newest electronic gadgets. Hotels continue to operate, and militias provide security."

For more on Somalia, see this article:
http://www.mises.org/story/2066

Another good article on Capitalism (real capitalism, not what you learned to hate in your government schools): http://www.mises.org/story/1562

And Rothbard writes of the difference between true capitalism and state capitalism:

"The difference between free-market capitalism and state capitalism is precisely the difference between, on the one hand, peaceful, voluntary exchange, and on the other, violent expropriation. An example of a free-market exchange is my purchase of a newspaper on the corner for a dime; here is a peaceful, voluntary exchange beneficial to both parties. I buy the newspaper because I value the newspaper more highly than the dime that I give up in exchange; and the newsdealer sells me the paper because, he, in turn, values the dime more highly than the news*paper. Both parties to the exchange benefit. And what we are both doing in the exchange is the swapping of titles of ownership: I relin*quish the ownership of my dime in exchange for the paper, and the newsdealer performs the exact opposite change of title. This simple exchange of a dime for a newspaper is an example of a unit free-market act; it is the market at work.

In contrast to this peaceful act, there is the method of violent expropriation. Violent expropriation occurs when I go to the news-dealer and seize his newspapers or his money at the point of a gun. In this case, of course, there is no mutual benefit; I gain at the expense of the victimized newsdealer. Yet the difference between these two trans*actions--between voluntary mutual exchange, and the holdup at gunpoint--is precisely the difference between free market capitalism and state capitalism. In both cases we obtain something--whether it be money or newspapers- but we obtain them in completely different ways, ways with completely different moral attributes and social con*sequences"

http://www.mises.org/story/1559

Please, dear reader, educate yourself before you opine ...