kapitalizm
16.10.02, 18:04
Zapraszam do dyskusji, czy zgadzasz sie, ze tylko kapitalizm jesr moralny czy
nie?
W ktorym miejscu nie zgadzasz sie z artykulem i dlaczego.
J.
The Moral Basis of Capitalism
Capitalism is the only moral social system because it is the only system that
respects the freedom of the producers to think and the right of the
individual to set his own goals and pursue his own happiness.
by Robert W. Tracinski
With the fall of communism and the alleged end of the "era of big
government," many commentators and politicians grudgingly acknowledge the
practical value of capitalism. The free market, they concede, is the best
system for producing wealth and promoting prosperity; the private economy, in
Bill Clinton's words, is the "primary engine of growth."
But this has not led to the triumph of capitalism. Quite the opposite:
Federal taxes as a percentage of gross domestic product are at their highest
rate since the Second World War; antitrust assaults on the market's winners
are growing; the regulations on the federal register continue to expand by
60,000 pages per year; even the Republicans' recent tax cut proposal would
only mandate a minor decrease in the projected growth of government revenues.
By practically every measure, government interference in the free market is
growing.
If capitalism is recognized as the only practical economic system—then why is
it losing out to state control? The reason is that no one, neither on the
left nor the right, is willing to defend capitalism as moral. Thus, both
sides agree, whatever the practical value of capitalism, morality requires
that the free market be reigned in by government regulations. The only
disagreement between the two sides is over the number of regulations and the
rate of their growth.
What no one has grasped yet is that capitalism is not just practical but also
moral. Capitalism is the only system that fully allows and encourages the
virtues necessary for human life. It is the only system that safeguards the
freedom of the independent mind and recognizes the sanctity of the individual.
Every product that sustains and improves human life is made possible by the
thinking of the world's creators and producers. We enjoy an abundance of food
because scientists have discovered more efficient methods of agriculture,
such as fertilization and crop rotation. We enjoy a lifespan double that of
the pre-industrial era thanks to advances in medical technology, from
antibiotics to X-rays to biotechnology, discovered by doctors and medical
researchers. We enjoy the comfort of air conditioning, the speed of airline
transportation, the easy access to information made possible by the World
Wide Web—because scientists and inventors have made the crucial mental
connections necessary to create these products.
Most people recognize the right of scientists and engineers to be free to ask
questions, to pursue new ideas, and to create new innovations. But at the
same time, most people ignore the third man who is essential to human
progress: the businessman. The businessman is the one who takes the
achievements of the scientists and engineers out of the realm of theory and
turns them into reality; he takes their ideas off the chalkboards and out of
the laboratories and puts them onto the store shelves.
Behind the activities of the businessman there is a process of rational
inquiry every bit as important as that of the scientist or inventor. The
businessman has to figure out how to find and train workers who will produce
a quality product; he has to discover how to cut costs to make the product
affordable; he has to determine how best to market and distribute his product
so that it reaches its potential buyers; and he has to figure out how to
finance his venture in a way that will best feed future growth. All of these
issues—and many others—depend on the mind of the businessman. If he is not
left free to think, the venture loses money and its product goes out of
existence.
The businessman has to have an unwavering dedication to thinking, not only in
solving these problems, but also in dealing with others. He has to use reason
to persuade investors, employees, and suppliers that his venture is a
profitable one. If he cannot, the investors take their money elsewhere, the
best employees leave for better opportunities, and the suppliers will give
preference to more credit-worthy customers.
The businessman's dedication to thought, persuasion, and reason is a virtue—a
virtue that our lives and prosperity depend on. The only way to respect this
virtue is to leave the businessman free to act on his own judgment. That is
precisely what capitalism does. The essence of capitalism is that it bans the
use of physical force and fraud in men's economic relationships. All
decisions are to be left to the "free market"—that is, to the un-coerced
decisions of buyers and sellers, manufacturers and distributors, employers
and employees. The first rule of capitalism is that everyone has a right to
dispose of his own life and property according to his own judgment.
Government regulation, by contrast, operates by thwarting the businessman's
thinking, subordinating his judgment to the decrees of government officials.
These officials do not have to consider the long-term results—only what is
politically expedient. They do not have to back their decisions with their
own money or effort—they dispose of the lives and property of others. And
most important, they do not have to persuade their victims—they impose their
will, not by reason, but by physical force.
The government regulator does not merely show contempt for the minds of his
victims; he also shows contempt for their personal goals and values.
In a free-market economy, everyone is driven by his own ambitions for wealth
and success. That's what "free trade" means: that no one may demand the work,
effort, or money of another without offering to trade something of value in
return. If both partners to the trade don't expect to gain, they are free to
go elsewhere. In Adam Smith's famous formulation, the rule of capitalism is
that every trade occurs "by mutual consent and to mutual advantage."
It is common to condemn this approach as selfish—yet to say that people are
acting selfishly is to say that they take their own lives seriously, that
they are exercising their right to pursue their own happiness. By contrast,
project what it would mean to exterminate self-interest and force everyone to
work for goals mandated by the state. It would mean, for example, that a
young student's goal to have a career as a neurosurgeon must be sacrificed
because some bureaucrat decrees that there are "too many" specialists in that
field. Such a system is based on the premise that no one owns his own life,
that the individual is merely a tool to be exploited for the ends
of "society." And since "society" consists of nothing more than a group of
individuals, this means that some men are to be sacrificed for the sake of
others—those who claim to be "society's" representatives. For examples, see
the history of the Soviet Union.
A system that sacrifices the self to "society" is a system of slavery—and a
system that sacrifices thinking to coercion is a system of brutality. This is
the essence of any anti-capitalist system, whether communist or fascist.
And "mixed" systems, such as today's regulatory and welfare state, merely
unleash the same evils on a smaller scale.
Only capitalism renounces these evils entirely. Only capitalism is fully true
to the moral ideal stated in the Declaration of Independence: the
individual's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Only
capitalism protects the individual's freedo
