Why Capitalism is a Good Thing
Good reminder frm James Bartholomew. Money Quote :
Tens of millions died under communist rule in China. And after all the oppression and suffering, there was still no equality. There was the privileged ruling class with, in Russia's case, special dachas in the country and road lanes in town. Imposing equality is not an easy ride. It is oppressive and doomed to failure.
Capitalism, meanwhile, has claims, at the least, to reducing inequality over time. The inequality was enormous when George III was sitting on his gilded throne in 1806, with thousands of servants and farm workers and other underlings at his beck and call, while elsewhere in the country were those who could barely find enough to eat and, in some cases, died of hunger.
Nowadays, more than nine out of 10 young people have mobile phones, 99 per cent of households have colour televisions, most households have cars. Yes, the rich are still with us. But the contrast in financial wealth has been greatly reduced over the long term. That was not due to any government, let alone a deliberate attempt to promote equality. It was achieved by capitalism.
Why is the system now taken for granted and despised? Perhaps it is because the collapse of the communist states has removed from our sight useful reminders of how vastly superior capitalism is to state control. We should be careful.
-Posted by Adam
Sure, capitalism can create a strong economy, and it can wreck entire nations and lead to catastrophic world wars too - remember the Wall Street Crash anyone? And everyone knows the failings of Marxist-Leninism; we don't need another right-wing zealot to remind us of this. But one vital issue must not be brushed aside. Without the welfare state and the NHS in Britain, people would be infinitely worse off. These government-sponsored institutions have nothing whatsoever to do with capitalism. They were created thanks to the influence of socialism. Remember Victorian Britain? The working classes crowded together into tiny slums, slaving away for rich, capitalist factory-owners? That’s what life would still be like here, were it not for the Liberal Reforms of 1906 and the post-war reforms of Clement Atlee and Ernest Bevin's Labour Government. Go and read some Charles Dickens if you don't believe me. Also, I find the Thomas Hardy reference in this article absurd and irrelevant. Cars were not invented in the mid-nineteenth century when most of his novels are set, you sly devil.
Also, the author seems to make no distinction between communist state tyranny and democratic, centre-left socialism. Does he take his readers for idiots?
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