Introducing: simply Capitalism

I have been honored by an invitation to participate in a new group blog on economics.Please take the time to check it out.

simply Capitalism

We are a group of bloggers brought together by a common love of business, economics, and free enterprise. Our intent with this blog is to provide a venue for discussion of these topics. We aspire to take a principled look at events of the day, and to disseminate and illustrate principles in action.

We come at these issues from a unique perspective.

First, we are not ivory-tower theoreticians, but we are intellectuals none-the-less. Collectively, we have decades of experience working in various businesses across a range of industries. We have the combined knowledge of the general principles and theories upon which our economy is based and also the day-to-day, concrete decisions, actions and effects which such a system implies.

Second, we are Objectivists which means that we think that capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism, is the only moral political and economic system. It is moral not because it is effective, although that is true, but because it is the only system that preserves individual rights, leaving man free to use his mind to advance his own life, and leaving men free to voluntarily trade with each other for mutual gain.

Today, we live in a mixed economy made up of both semi-free markets and government controls. We live in a culture that views business and businessmen as a necessary evil. While the ability of capitalism to bring general prosperity is begrudgingly acknowledged, big business and naked “greed” are routinely blamed for the country’s problems. Calls continue for more government controls and regulations to fix a "broken" system. We think this view is flawed.

When it becomes difficult to determine which effects are due to government interference and which are due to free market influences, our goal is clarity and proper identification. When we hear calls for pragmatism and “balance” in our approach, our goal is to find the principles that illuminate the proper course of action. When we see a system of political pull and coercive government replacing a system of merit, productivity and voluntary trade, our goal is to defend the individual rights that make the latter possible once again.

Our goal is … simply Capitalism.

If a detailed, factual study were made of all those instances in the history of American industry which have been used by the statists as an indictment of free enterprise and as an argument in favor of a government-controlled economy, it would be found that the actions blamed on businessmen were caused, necessitated, and made possible only by government intervention in business. The evils, popularly ascribed to big industrialists, were not the result of an unregulated industry, but of government power over industry. The villain in the picture was not the businessman, but the legislator, not free enterprise, but government controls.

“Notes on the History of American Free Enterprise,”
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal