Today’s Mises article by professor D.W. MacKenzie explains that, alas, we are moving into “market socialism” where capital will increasingly be allocated by politics rather than by the profit-driven decisions of investors. Read it here.
True capitalism allocates resources to the highest economic uses through the profit and loss system. It is responsible for the rising living standards of people around the globe. Per contra, socialism allocates resources according to the whims of those in power, whether elected politicians, monarchs, or dictators. It has a lousy record. In countries that have gone from capitalism into market socialism (or state capitalism, which amounts to the same thing), living standards have fallen. Argentina is a good case.
And yet the advocates of socialism proclaim that they demand their system (which can only come about through state coercion) because it’s so good for “the common man.” No doubt there are some “useful idiots” (as Lenin put it) who fervently support market socialism because they’ve been told that it “puts a human face on capitalism” but the masterminds know that it’s all about power.
