Clive Crook questions the reflexive dislike of capitalism in
America. He recounts the story of the Soviet official who did not
believe vendors at a London market set prices throughout the day on
their own based on supply and demand. He also shows that the American
government is not as small as widely believed. The whole thing is worth
reading, but some highlights for the time-constrained looking for a
good talking point:
The point is not that such movies, or the culture more generally, argue that capitalism is evil. Just the opposite: it is
that they so often merely assume, innocently and expecting to arouse no skepticism, that capitalism is evil.
[snip]
Often it seems that those in the West who are
most concerned with defending political or civil freedoms are least
concerned with the economic kind, even to the point of being outright
opposed to them. They argue as though political freedom is the real
thing, whereas economic freedom is merely a cloak for injustice. In the
end, as socialism in practice showed, the two are indivisible.
[snip]
A background presumption against market forces is a poor
basis for policy.
[snip]
What best serves a nation?s economic interests is
competition?it?s why markets work, when they do. But competition hurts
individual businesses, and most CEOs hate it.
