Why is capitalism considered a good thing?

[Subordinationist]

You just reinforced my point.

Dear Vylo,

And you totally missed the point. The "freedom" to harm another's private property is not a freedom, i.e. the freedom to burn trash is only a freedom as long as no one else's private property is being harmed. The difference between the rural and the urban in this regard is merely a matter of proximity between one property and another, not a matter of freedoms allowed or restricted.

All of this reinforces my point. There is a massive trend towards liberal voting in urban areas and conservative in rural. It isn't to say some votes won't go the other way, but the trend is very clear. You are being willfully blind if you don't see it.

Apparently the conservative-voting, large rural areas of Oregon are not enough to make it a red state--it is still a strong blue state in terms of voting for the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives, as the maps on the website I gave in my last post make clear. The same goes for the largely rural states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine, New Mexico and Michigan, which are all solid blue states in voting for the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Here's the crux: the large rural areas, supposedly conservative, of Oregon, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine, New Mexico and Michigan are not enough to make them red states, while the so-called liberal urban areas of an Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Florida, even a Texas and barely an Arizona, are not enough to make them blue states. When you compare the rural-dwellers of a Vermont with that of a Wyoming, there is a difference in viewpoints, even if the view from their house windows is nearly the same.

Economic freedom =/= personal freedom.

Nothing could be further from the truth. As Professor F.A. Hayek once observed,

"Professor Hayek goes on to say that the only 'idea' upon which political liberty has safely rested in the past is that of economic liberty or freedom of enterprise...[that is] the recognition in law, and the active preservation by law, of the right of the individual to do what he likes with his labour and property." --Durbin, E.F.M., "Professor Hayek on Economic Planning and Political Liberty", The Economic Journal, Vol. 55, No. 220, December, 1945, pp. 358.
​

Professor Hayek's The Road to Serfdom is highly recommended. This same Hayek won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, a prize he certainly deserved, unlike a more recent Nobel laureate.

 

[tanzanos]

Capitalism is private property and the customary legal principle that a person is at liberty so long as he does not commit torts or violate contracts. So, if you like civilization, it's pretty good.

Capitalism is civilisation? I know Americans like to change the meaning of words but this is so ridiculous that it does not even merit further comment! Is there no end to ignorance on this planet?

 

[keith99]

That is only true for certain forms of socialism. It is quite possible to engage in a completely voluntary socialist society - the Jewish kibbutz is an example of such a society..

But isn't the Kibbutz really a mixed economy? The huge advantage of capitalism as opposed to communist or socialist economies is that in practice individuals get to decide what is valuable to them. The Kibbutz exists withing such a setting. If it is managed well it produces things that other want and can buy hte things it does not produce. It gets all the benefits from the blind guidance of the market.