On Capitalism

Welcome to the relaunch of my blog and thank you to a certain libertarian professor's catch phrase for giving me a much better idea for this blog. This first topic is a tribute to Miron.

This week the G20 is meeting to discuss the world's economic crisis and potential international solutions. As always, a group of colorfully dressed and delightfully naive/moronic people descended onto the city and tried to overthrow the "unfair" system that has led the world into such dire straits (mind you they do this every year even if we're in an upswing).

Capitalism is always a fun subject to talk about because people have completely different reactions to it depending on their experiences, wealth, education, political beliefs, and more. It is a concept that is either worshiped or reviled.

I think very few people would say that capitalism/free market always leads to perfect solutions. There are winner, losers, externalities, imperfect information, and a whole host of other issues that can lead to outcomes that few people are unhappy with. The real question is there anything better?

Time and time ago, the answer seems to be for the most part no. Free markets have existed since the concept of trade entered human society thousands of years ago, and efforts to create socialism have ended in either surrender or total collapse (China vs. North Korea). Trying to destroy free markets is like trying to destroy human nature.

So by all means, let's discuss how markets should be regulated, how governments should intervene, and how business should be operated. There are reasonable discussions to be had about how to best help developing nations, drug policies, and patents. These are reasonable questions that there is plenty of room for debate on.

Idiots dressed up as stormtroopers and throwing rocks at the police are not helpful. On the other hand, neither is Rush Limbaugh screaming from his radio pulpit that this country is heading towards a socialist dictatorship and that we need to restore true capitalism. This doesn't help anybody.

So let's have some reasonable discussion, figure out what works pretty well, and move along with our lives without worrying about if our world's economic system is the Ultimate Evil (spoiler alert: it's not).

Enjoy this treat as well!