Edward Cropper located these salient remarks on capitalism from the master economist, Milton Friedman, who points out the term "self-interest" is a better term then "greed". After all, everyone has self-interest, but only "other" people exhibit greed. "The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interest".
This self-interest operates regardless of the capitalist, communist, or socialist society in place, however:
"In the only cases the masses have escaped from the grinding poverty you are talking about - the only cases in recorded history - are where they've had capitalism and largely free trade..."
In a capitalist society, self-interest has a way of producing fair results. My wife's American history professor demonstrated how self interest could lead to equitable results. He provided a student ten one dollar bills and told the student he could divide the money in two piles to split between another student. The second student, however, got to choose which pile to select. The first student invariably would ensure the ten dollars were split evenly.
Obama wants to raise taxes to make them "fair" (whatever that means) - even if the over all revenue to the treasury goes down. Clinton wants to tax "excess" oil company profits - does that mean she is willing to confiscate "excess" profits of other industries with higher margins? These aren't new concepts. There are plenty of examples to see how they don't work. For example unemployed luxury yacht and plane workers can tell you what happens when the self interest of boat and plane buyers kick in.
Where the economic policies of Senators Obama and Clinton depart from capitalism, society will be the worse for it.
Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED May 8, 2008
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