 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ] Next Last |
Since there are so many divergent ideologies backing or fighting capitalism, there is no possible agreed upon argument list for or against it. Each of the above ideologies makes very different claims for or about capitalism. Some ideologies refuse to use the word at all.
There seem to be at least five separate and distinct questions about capitalism which have clearly survived the 20th century and remain hotly debated today. Certain thinkers claim or claimed to have simple answers to these questions, but political science generally sees them as scales or shades of grey:
Is capitalism moral? Does it encourage traits and behaviors we find virtuous or proper in human beings? Can a successful participant in a capitalist economy also be a moral or virtuous person? Yes: Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Robin Hanson No: John McMurtry, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin
Is capitalism ethical? Can its rules and contracts and enforcement systems be made wholly objective of the people administering them, to a greater degree than other systems? Is it compatible with the rule of law? Yes: Buckminster Fuller, John McMurtry, Friedrich Hayek No: Karl Marx, Peter Kropotkin, Vladimir Lenin
Is capitalism efficient? Given whatever moral purposes or ethical standards it might serve, can it be said to allocate energy, material resources, or human creativity better than any of the alternatives? Yes: Ludwig von Mises, Paul Hawken, Joseph Schumpeter No: Peter Kropotkin, Rosa Luxemburg
Is capitalism sustainable? Can it persist as a means of organizing human affairs, under any conceivable set of reforms as per the above? Can it overcome both political challenges (such as socialist revolutionism) and material challenges (such as limited natural resources)? Yes: Buckminster Fuller, Paul Hawken No: Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky
Often, when political polemicists use the word "capitalism," they actually have in mind a more specific and recent phenomenon, finance capitalism, i.e. the purchase and sale of corporate debt and equity, often on liquid secondary markets. This brings up a fifth question: does finance capitalism undermine industrial capitalism? There are those, from Thorstein Veblen to Mahathir bin Mohamed who have contended that finance undermines the productive economy, while others from Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk to George Soros have replied that financial profit-seeking prods and complements industrial capitalism.
It's hard to answer this objectively. Apparently there has never been a clear agreement about the linguistic, economic, ethical and moral implications, that is, the " political economy" of capitalism itself.
Rather like a governing political party that everyone seeks to control, regardless of ideology, the definition of "capitalism" at any given time tends to reflect the current conflicts between interest groups.
The non-obvious combinations demonstrate the complexity of the debate. For instance, Joseph Schumpeter claimed in 1962 that capitalism was more efficient than any alternative, but doomed due to its complex and abstract rationale which the ordinary citizen would not ultimately defend.
Also, the overlapping claims confuse most debaters. Ayn Rand made an original defense of capitalism as a moral code, but her arguments for its efficiency were not original, and selected to support her moral claims. Karl Marx believed capitalism efficient but unfair at the administration of an immoral purpose, and thus ultimately unsustainable. John McMurtry, a current commentator within the anti-globalization movement, believes it has become increasingly fair at the administration of this immoral purpose. Robin Hanson, another current commentator, asks if fitness and fairness and morality can ever really be separated by other than electoral political means?
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|