Michael Moore's new film, "Capitalism: A Love Story" will be released next month. I've neither seen nor read reviews of the film, except for a short piece in the London Telegraph (9/6/09) titled "Michael Moore film calls capitalism evil." Aware of Michael Moore's previous films, I know that it will be at best a misleading story about capitalism. So let's do some defensive mental preparation, not about the film but what is and what is not capitalism.
Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private ownership and control over the means of production. The distribution of goods and services and their prices are mainly determined by competition in a free market. Under such a system the primary job of government is to protect private property, enforce contracts and ensure rule of law.
There has never been a pure free market capitalistic system just as there has never been a pure communist or socialist system, where there is government ownership of the means of production and each individual has equal access to society's resources. However, we can rank economies as to whether they are closer to capitalism or closer to communism or socialism. If one ranked countries according to whether they were closer to the capitalistic end of the spectrum or the socialistic or communistic end, then ranked countries according to per capita GDP and finally rank countries according to Freedom House's "Map of Freedom in the World," he would find a pattern that is by no means a coincidence. The people in those countries closer to the capitalist end of the economic spectrum have far greater income and enjoy greater human rights protections than those toward the socialist and communist end.
According to the London Telegraph article, Moore's film features priests who say capitalism is anti-Christian by failing to protect the poor. This is pure nonsense and revealed as such by asking, "If you're an unborn spirit, condemned by God to a life of poverty but allowed to choose the country in which to be poor, would you choose a country near the communist end of the economic spectrum or the capitalist end?" If you chose the United States, you'd find that according to the government surveys, the typical "poor" American has cable or satellite TV, two color TVs, and a DVD player or VCR.
He has air conditioning, a car, a microwave, a refrigerator, a stove, and a clothes washer and dryer, and whether he has health insurance or not, he is able to obtain medical care when needed. Try to find that in Cuba, Russia, China or North Korea. If we buy into the nonsense of Moore's priests, the world's poor people are incredibly stupid. Whether fleeing legally or illegally, their destination country is likely to be closer to capitalism than their departure country.
Most of our country's serious problems can be laid at the feet of Congress and the White House and not at capitalism. Take the financial crisis. One-third of the $15 trillion of mortgages in existence in 2008 are owned, or securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, the Federal Housing and the Veterans Administration. Banks didn't mind making risky loans and Wall Street buyers didn't mind buying these repackaged loans because they assumed that they would be guaranteed by the federal government: read bailout by taxpayers. Under a capitalist system, financial institutions would not have been intimidated or encouraged into making risky loans and neither would they have been bailed out if they did so.
Social Security, Medicare and its coverage of prescription drugs have an unfunded liability that exceeds $100 trillion. When those roosters come home to roost, they will make the financial meltdown we've been though look like child's play.
Not withstanding all of the demagoguery, it is capitalism not socialism is that made us a great country and its socialism that will be our undoing.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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Dear Walter Williams. Good Article. Most Taxpayers wouldn't give Michael Moore's 'Capitalism' movie the time of day! As this is the way it should be! What Taxpayers know is that 'radical and socialism' methods are taking place and apparently, this has been going on since the 1960's. It's gotten worse in past decade. Taxpayers have been so busy making a living, paying taxes, supporting their families they didn't realize their jobs and their stability had been sold, to highest bidder, by the blood-sucking ticks they'd been supporting for years! What politicians are calling recession is more like a depression since Bailouts and Handouts bankrupted America and FDIC now has to be bailed out by banks and need $100 Billion credit line with the US Treasury. Understand, this excessive money, plus the trillions, borrowed without Taxpayers consent, should be enough to sell them a one-way ticket to GITMO, take all their assets to pay off trillions, and make sure the boat is ready to pick them up!
Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the Big 3 automakers, Freddie, Fannie, AIG,ACORN, NAACP, non-profit organizations,and anyone else that took Taxpayers' money they were not entitled to and turn around and lie about it! What Taxpayers don't understand is why the 'blood-sucking ticks' continue to take enormous amounts of money, knowingly, from Drug and Insurance companies, healthcare, hospitals, just to name a couple, and want to further sell out America by telling them their fraudulent Healthcare will put the icing on the cake for total bankruptcy.
Will there be far-reaching consequences? Absolutely should be as Taxpayers must stop the corruption and dishonesty! Have you ever seen the level of greed and stupidity all rolled into one? This is not money that Congress is risking from their pockets or future, but Taxpayers. Taxpayers are fed up! It's time to 'shut down and hunt down' the CEO's, politicians, lobbyists, special interests, and the big money hounds and take all the money back from them, as they, most certainly, didn't earn it and they're absolutely responsible for the bankruptcy of America and most companies.
When Taxpayers think of all the Committees being used by politicians on local,
state, and federal levels, several comes to mind! ‘Ways and Means,
Appropriations, Government Reform, Economics, Financial Services, Pensions,
Ethics, Rules, Finance, Education', and I think you're getting the message, as these public servants absolutely do not have speecial training, but when they step foot into government, they're put on these committees - this should tell you something about how politicians think! For
the past five decades, wouldn't you think that with all these committees someone
honest with intregrity would have stepped up to the plate and put an end to ‘tax &
spend'! Want to know why? They are all in it together!
It's time to put the politicians and their buddies on notice and let them know their
time is limited to one (1) month a year. Their salary, retirements, bonuses,
freebies, long term retirements, spare offices and anything else Taxpayers have
been paying for are getting cut to a maximum of $12,000.00 yearly and absolutely
no raises, since these 'position's were supposed to be 'public servants'. Frankly,
they've never served the Taxpayers only themselves! Really, it's time to hand out the pink slips, run government like a private business and get rid of the corruption and greed.
While I'm on a roll, stop calling the public servants "Czars". They're not Kings or Emperors!
Comment: #1
Posted by: Shirley deLong
Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:30 AM
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Another excellent article by Walter Williams. Collectivists espouse socialism. But what they really want is for capitalists to be forced to pay for it. And what they don't understand is that they get much more for nothing in a capitalist society than they would in a socialistic one. The real problem starts with their assumption that they are owed the standard of living provided for them by the capitalists.
Comment: #2
Posted by: wade mathias
Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:00 PM
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Fantastic post! Thank you Mr Williams.
Comment: #3
Posted by: michelle
Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:01 PM
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