Salon Idiot: "Libertarians are very confused about capitalism"

Elites didn't get rich off of some “free market.” Here's why libertarians should back radical wealth redistribution

“There is no evidence that capitalism exists today,” says former congressman Ron Paul. A leading libertarian voice in American politics, Paul says the land of the free no longer has free markets but an economy centrally planned by powerful elites, one that “allows major benefits to accrue to the politically connected,” not the most deserving.

Salon Idiot: "Libertarians are very confused about capitalism" Rand_ron_paul-620x412

Salon Idiot: "Libertarians are very confused about capitalism" Rand_ron_paul-620x412

These days, “corporate subsidies” and “privileged government contracts to the military-industrial complex” are the path to riches, says Paul. “This is not capitalism!”

If one defines capitalism as a system designed by and for the interests of those who hold capital (what it is), capitalism is what the United States has today. It is a system based not on principles of freedom and liberty and justice for all, but the accumulation of wealth for people called “capitalists.” It entails structuring an economy in such a way that natural resources are exploited for private gain and land is parceled off into mortgage-backed securities. It means rich people using their money to buy power and shape economic relations to their advantage, which makes them more money.

But let’s say this isn’t “capitalism,” as libertarians define it: this is not a genuine “free market,” which would entail the institution of private property and the privatized control of vital natural resources, yes, but would also be free of much if not all state intervention, with financial success based not on coercion and heavily armed people with guns but healthy and fair competition. Wealth would be a just reward for producing better widgets, not a license to rewrite the rules in one’s favor.

I am told this does not exist today, “the free market,” and I agree, but I suspect it doesn’t exist now – a capitalism based on rigid notions of private property but not systemic violence that manifests itself in a massive transfer of wealth to an already wealthy elite – for the same reason human babies aren’t born to alligators: because it’s impossible and goes against everything we know about our world.

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/08/libertarians_are_very_confused_about_capitalism/

Salon Idiot: "Libertarians are very confused about capitalism"

Salon Idiot: "Libertarians are very confused about capitalism"

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