Home Section 8

Now Visiting

We have 4 guests online
The Law, by Bastiat
Member Price: USD $1.89

"... You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything ..."

(C-W Ballad)


Lesson 72 - Socialism and Capitalism Print E-mail

 

State capitalists are those who are correctly termed socialists - although many seek to deny it, change the subject, or to change the meaning of the word.

Socialists object to private capitalism on many grounds, including:

  1. An objection to profits - because they say, some seem to benefit more than others.
  2. A fear of monopoly - because it is imagined that without governmental interference one man would ultimately own everything.
  3. A contention that businessmen and industrialists are cruel and greedy.
  4. The argument that the Industrial Revolution proved conclusively that when there are free markets with a minimum of government regulation and interference (laissez-faire), unemployment is the result, human exploitation occurs, and the working classes are degraded.
  5. The argument that early private capitalism led to "the age of the Robber Barons".
  6. The contention that when there was a free market economy following World War I, it caused a Great Depression that was cured only by the massive intervention of the state.
  7. The counter-contention that when government owns or at least strongly controls or regulates the tools, means, resources, and methods of production and distribution -- that all of the above evils can be avoided.

Therefore, socialists (statists) overwhelmingly favor either:

  1. Total outright ownership of the tools, means, resources, and methods of production and distribution by the state (government); or
  2. Partial or nominal ownership of some of the tools, means, resources, and/or methods of production and distribution by the state (government), with strong authoritarian control and regulation of all that remains privately held.

Of these two, we can see that the second is actually more aligned with fascism - and that fascism and socialism each have a great deal more in common than not.

And what of "communism"?

In theory, under communism "everybody owns everything in equal partnership".  Decisions and control are exercised equally and collectively by members of the community, rather than with government owning and controlling.

Communism in practice however quickly becomes nothing more or less than a hideous combination of socialism and fascism, where although all are theoretically equal in ownership and control - some inevitably become more equal than others.

 

Go to next lesson ...>>



 
 

Fundamentals of Liberty