AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

Many people who decry capitalism do so from a position of ignorance of what capitalism really is. They look at the market system that exists in the U.S. today and mistakenly call it capitalism. Our present economic system is not free market capitalism, it is crony capitalism. Crony capitalism is a branch on the same central planning tree that includes socialism and fascism. In a true free market capitalist system, businesses wouldn’t be able to lobby government to pass laws that protect their position in the market and raise the costs on their present and future competitors, because government wouldn’t have the power to make these rules. Under free market capitalism businesses are incentivized to first serve their fellow-man before they can profit in any way. They must produce a good or service that consumers will freely exchange a portion of their labor for. Under crony capitalism businesses are incentivized to protect their own self-interest at the expense of the consumers and tax payers who are usually the same people.

Here is a video titled,  Why Capitalism Works, from Prager University, featuring George Gilder. He talks about the role of the entrepreneur in free market capitalism, as well as the incentive of giving before you receive.

SCARCITY TRUMPS  UTOPIAN VISIONS

The problem with how people perceive an economy is they don’t understand that a utopian world can’t be created on earth. The first rule of economics, scarcity, combined with the imperfections of man, make a utopian world impossible. The real question should be: What economic system can use limited means to supply the most ends for the most people? Put another way: In a world of scarce means and unlimited ends, which economic system can satisfy the most desires, with the knowledge that many desires will remain unmet? Free market capitalism,  produces the best possible result. History shows the branches of the central planning tree, whether it’s called crony capitalism, socialism, fascism, progressivism, communism, et al, produce a system were people have a lower standard of living and less individual freedom. A free market is nothing more than individuals freely producing, consuming and exchanging what they want, and in whatever quantities they want. Any interference by government, no matter how small, in the freedom of the individual to produce, consume, and exchange, moves an economic system down the central planning road, which is what Hayek called, “the road to serfdom”.

Related Video – Walter E. Williams, The Free Market Is Not Allowed To Work, by austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – We Can’t Recreate The Garden Of Eden, by austrianaddict.com.

Related Video – Milton Friedman vs. Phil Donahue, Greed Is In The Eye Of The Beholder, by austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Unleash The Mind, by George Gilder, by austrianaddict.com.

This entry was posted on April 23, 2014 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Econ. 101. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Central Planning, Crony Capitalism, Economic Scarcity, Free Market Capitalism, Garden of Eden, George Gilder, Milton Friedman, Prager University, Production Consumption Exchange, Utopian World View, Walter E. Williams