David Warren writes a great article contrasting capitalism and socialism. Socialism tends towards centralized control as any student with a modest education should know (although many university students will probably believe otherwise).
Warren observes:
"Capitalism tends to open society, socialism to close it. There is no reason to wonder why those who lust for power are drawn to the left; or why the left has been consistently "chic" among the intellectuals, continuously for much more than a century. Socialism may impoverish and enslave, but it is the means by which the intellectual can hope to become the enslaver: through the creation of bureaucracies to advance and perpetuate fashionable progressive agendas.
Free markets create conditions of plenty, in which starvation does not become an issue; socialism imposes material constraints and dysfunctions which finally necessitate "population control."
He goes on to make an interesting, and seldom made argument, that a more locally driven capitalism would be of benefit to the "little guy" or consumers who so often find themselves battling against the monolithic giants of the corporate world or government, neither of which seems to care about Joe Schmo.
"I am not against restricting business activities. I am, however, generally opposed to regulation by vast central authorities. I think a much more effective way to make business responsive to individual and local needs, is to invert the entire regulatory order; to make it work from the ground up, instead of from the sky down.
Let multinational corporations negotiate for position with a million tiny local authorities, adapting their services to each. Let their franchise operations compete on a "level playing field" with local service providers, everywhere they land. Open the gates to "market entry."
Now this is the kind of thinking that our society needs. We need less government, less "one size fits all", centrally controlled, top heavy, bureaucratic thinking that leads only to more of the status quo.
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1 comments:
"Let multinational corporations negotiate for position with a million tiny local authorities, adapting their services to each. Let their franchise operations compete on a "level playing field" with local service providers, everywhere they land. Open the gates to "market entry.""
Seriously: what the hell does that mean? Seems like more mumbo jumbo to fill a weekly column obligation.
The only thing I can think of that emanates from that is that every local jurisdiction (however that may be defined) should set its own rules. My goodness - talk about the expansion of bureaucracy and choking off capitalism.
Americans always get business regulation wrong: either they flip from not having enough or none where its needed to going way too far and way too piecemeal and too in to the operations of a business. In Canada, we tend to have pretty hefty regulations but business, as long as they are compliant, can go on as it pleases. Banking is the perfect example. Environment too: our standards are higher (generally) but the ongoing compliance requirements in the US is what kills them in costs more than the standards themselves. It's like in Canada we've paved a narrow road but then let the business drive the car, whereas in the US there is no road but they (sometimes) try to drive the actual car.
Capitalism does indeed open up society. It is far more democratic and free. Warren compares the realities of socialism to an idealized version of capitalism though. Free markets can create conditions of need and in shich starvation is indeed an issue. In fact, it survives because of that and needs to brutally harm one generation (of industry or community or history) in order for the next to grow. It is much more organic and like nature: there are real winners reap great rewards and real losers who truly suffer.
It's when we forget that reality that totalitarian ideals like socialism start creeping back into the cracks.
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