Topic: Capitalism
It's Not Capitalism This article is a letter I sent to the Pueblo Chieftain in response to an article they ran wherein Monica Moorehead, managing editor of the left-leaning newspaper Workers World, claimed that economic system in the US is a "capitalist" system in which tax-payer money is handed over to multi-billion dollar corporations. My rebuttal is concise but poignant.by Steven McDuffie
(libertarian)
Monday, May 4, 2009
I would like to offer a correction to your April 4th, 2009 article entitled "Protesters demand bailout for the people". The AP writer, presumably paraphrasing the Worker's World editor, described the system of giving tax money to giant corporations as "capitalism". To be blunt, this system is very nearly the exact opposite of capitalism. It is corporatism.
Under capitalism, if a company cannot stimulate the market, it fails. Under corporatism, a company that cannot stimulate the market runs to government for a handout. The capitalist free market was set to punish AIG and the rest of the insolvent Wall Street and Detroit companies until the corporatists in Washington stepped in and saved them.
This is, of course, the reason many people hate or fear capitalism: they are holding strong opinions about things they do not understand.
Sincerely,
Steven McDuffie Colorado City, CO
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Steve, I think you make a good point about 'nearly the exact opposite of Capitalism'. If Free Market Capitalism is a system in which the markets are completely free [no advantages such as corporation or gov. intervention] and capital is completely self-directed, then a system that forcible directs capital by gov. intervention to corporations would seem to be the exact opposite.
Actually, the Workers World rag is a propaganda piece put out by the Communist Party USA which is a subversive organization supported by the IWW and other left leaning socialist and communistic parties across the world.
The problem with your claim is that there are multiple definitions of the term "capitalis". Marxists like those at Workers World still use the word in the original, traditional sense, whereas you use the word with a later, polemic re-definition.
See my column "Socialism and Capitalism" for more details:
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