Tag: Capitalism
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Kansas STAR bonds vote tests beliefs in capitalism, economic freedom
An upcoming vote in the Kansas Legislature, possibly today, will let Kansans know who is truly in favor of economic freedom, limited government, and free market capitalism — and who favors crony capitalism instead.
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Myth: Markets can solve all problems without government at all
In much of the world, perhaps all of it, the basic problem is not only that governments do too much, but also that they do too little. But as they cease doing what they ought not to do, governments should start doing some of the things that would in fact increase justice and create the…
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Palmer, activist for capitalism, to speak in Wichita
Tom G. Palmer, activist for capitalism and editor of the new book The Morality of Capitalism, will be in Wichita on May 16th.
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Myth: Privatizaton and marketization in post-communist societies were corrupt, which shows that markets are corrupting
Mere “privatization” in the absence of a functioning legal system is not the same as creating a market. Markets rest on a foundation of law; failed privatizations are not failures of the market, but failures of the state to create the legal foundations for markets.
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Myth: When prices are liberalized and subject to market forces, they just go up
While money prices may go up in the short time when prices are freed, the result is to increase production and diminish wasteful rationing and corruption, with the result that total real prices — expressed in terms of a basic commodity, human labor time — goes down.
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Myth: Markets only benefit the rich and talented
When trade takes place in free markets, both parties win. Free societies also lead to the “circulation of elites,” with no one guaranteed a place or kept from entering by accident of birth. The phrase “the rich get richer and the poor gets poorer” applies, not to free markets, but to mercantilism and political cronyism,…
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Intellectuals vs. the rest of us
Why are so many opposed to private property and free exchange — capitalism, in other words — in favor of large-scale government interventionism? Lack of knowledge, or ignorance, is one answer, but there is another.
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Political cronyism has become the way
Cronyism is the practice of seeking business success through government rather than through markets. The difference is that business succeeds in the market by providing goods and services that people are willing to buy. Political cronyism, on the other hand, results in people being forced to buy from, or to otherwise involuntarily subsidize, certain business…
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Myth: Markets debase culture and art
There is no contradiction between the market and art and culture. Market exchange is not the same as artistic experience or cultural enrichment, but it is a helpful vehicle for advancing both.
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Myth: Markets rest on the principle of the survival of the fittest
In market competition, the losers are not eaten by the winners, as is the case in biological competition. When business firms die, they are replaced by more efficient firms, and the investors, owners, managers, and employees are released to join more efficient firms.
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Myth: Markets can not meet human needs, such as health, housing, education, and food
If markets do a better job of meeting human needs than other principles, that is, if more people enjoy higher standards of living under markets than under socialism, it seems that the allocation mechanism under markets does a better job of meeting the criterion of need, as well. Food, certainly a more basic need than…
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Myth: Markets lead to more inequality than non-market processes
Market processes redistribute wealth, giving owners of assets incentives to maximize their value or to shift their assets to those who will. Political processes redistribute property, making property in general less valuable and destroying wealth. Those with the power to transfer property in the name of equality inevitably use it to benefit themselves, and the…