Lets Talk About The Moral Basis of Capitalism
- Thread starter Blackking
- Start date
http://www.capitalismcenter.org/Philosophy/Essays/The_Moral_Basis_of_Capitalism.htm
With the fall of communism and the alleged end of the "era of big government," many commentators and politicians grudgingly acknowledge the practical value of capitalism. The free market, they concede, is the best system for producing wealth and promoting prosperity; the private economy, in Bill Clinton's words, is the "primary engine of growth."
But this has not led to the triumph of capitalism. Quite the opposite: Federal taxes as a percentage of gross domestic product are at their highest rate since the Second World War; antitrust assaults on the market's winners are growing; the regulations on the federal register continue to expand by 60,000 pages per year; even the Republicans' recent tax cut proposal would only mandate a minor decrease in the projected growth of government revenues. By practically every measure, government interference in the free market is growing.
If capitalism is recognized as the only practical economic system—then why is it losing out to state control? The reason is that no one, neither on the left nor the right, is willing to defend capitalism asmoral. Thus, both sides agree, whatever the practical value of capitalism, morality requires that the free market be reigned in by government regulations. The only disagreement between the two sides is over the number of regulations and the rate of their growth.
What no one has grasped yet is that capitalism is not just practical but also moral. Capitalism is the only system that fully allows and encourages the virtues necessary for human life. It is the only system that safeguards the freedom of the independent mind and recognizes the sanctity of the individual.
Every product that sustains and improves human life is made possible by the thinking of the world's creators and producers. We enjoy an abundance of food because scientists have discovered more efficient methods of agriculture, such as fertilization and crop rotation. We enjoy a lifespan double that of the pre-industrial era thanks to advances in medical technology, from antibiotics to X-rays to biotechnology, discovered by doctors and medical researchers. We enjoy the comfort of air conditioning, the speed of airline transportation, the easy access to information made possible by the World Wide Web—because scientists and inventors have made the crucial mental connections necessary to create these products.
Most people recognize the right of scientists and engineers to be free to ask questions, to pursue new ideas, and to create new innovations. But at the same time, most people ignore the third man who is essential to human progress: the businessman. The businessman is the one who takes the achievements of the scientists and engineers out of the realm of theory and turns them into reality; he takes their ideas off the chalkboards and out of the laboratories and puts them onto the store shelves.
Behind the activities of the businessman there is a process of rational inquiry every bit as important as that of the scientist or inventor. The businessman has to figure out how to find and train workers who will produce a quality product; he has to discover how to cut costs to make the product affordable; he has to determine how best to market and distribute his product so that it reaches its potential buyers; and he has to figure out how to finance his venture in a way that will best feed future growth. All of these issues—and many others—depend on the mind of the businessman. If he is not left free to think, the venture loses money and its product goes out of existence.
The businessman has to have an unwavering dedication to thinking, not only in solving these problems, but also in dealing with others. He has to use reason to persuade investors, employees, and suppliers that his venture is a profitable one. If he cannot, the investors take their money elsewhere, the best employees leave for better opportunities, and the suppliers will give preference to more credit-worthy customers.
The businessman's dedication to thought, persuasion, and reason is a virtue—a virtue that our lives and prosperity depend on. The only way to respect this virtue is to leave the businessman free to act on his own judgment. That is precisely what capitalism does. The essence of capitalism is that it bans the use of physical force and fraud in men's economic relationships. All decisions are to be left to the "free market"—that is, to the un-coerced decisions of buyers and sellers, manufacturers and distributors, employers and employees. The first rule of capitalism is that everyone has a right to dispose of his own life and property according to his own judgment.
Government regulation, by contrast, operates by thwarting the businessman's thinking, subordinating his judgment to the decrees of government officials. These officials do not have to consider the long-term results—only what is politically expedient. They do not have to back their decisions with their own money or effort—they dispose of the lives and property of others. And most important, they do not have to persuade their victims—they impose their will, not by reason, but by physical force.
The government regulator does not merely show contempt for the minds of his victims; he also shows contempt for their personal goals and values.
In a free-market economy, everyone is driven by his own ambitions for wealth and success. That's what "free trade" means: that no one may demand the work, effort, or money of another without offering to trade something of value in return. If both partners to the trade don't expect to gain, they are free to go elsewhere. In Adam Smith's famous formulation, the rule of capitalism is that every trade occurs "by mutual consent and to mutual advantage."
It is common to condemn this approach as selfish—yet to say that people are acting selfishly is to say that they take their own lives seriously, that they are exercising their right to pursue their own happiness. By contrast, project what it would mean to exterminate self-interest and force everyone to work for goals mandated by the state. It would mean, for example, that a young student's goal to have a career as a neurosurgeon must be sacrificed because some bureaucrat decrees that there are "too many" specialists in that field. Such a system is based on the premise that no one owns his own life, that the individual is merely a tool to be exploited for the ends of "society." And since "society" consists of nothing more than a group of individuals, this means that some men are to be sacrificed for the sake of others—those who claim to be "society's" representatives. For examples, see the history of the Soviet Union.
A system that sacrifices the self to "society" is a system of slavery—and a system that sacrifices thinking to coercion is a system of brutality. This is the essence of any anti-capitalist system, whether communist or fascist. And "mixed" systems, such as today's regulatory and welfare state, merely unleash the same evils on a smaller scale.
Only capitalism renounces these evils entirely. Only capitalism is fully true to the moral ideal stated in the Declaration of Independence: the individual's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Only capitalism protects the individual's freedom of thought and his right to his own life.
Only when these ideals are once again taken seriously will we be able to recognize capitalism, not as a "necessary evil," but as a moral ideal.
With the fall of communism and the alleged end of the "era of big government," many commentators and politicians grudgingly acknowledge the practical value of capitalism. The free market, they concede, is the best system for producing wealth and promoting prosperity; the private economy, in Bill Clinton's words, is the "primary engine of growth."
But this has not led to the triumph of capitalism. Quite the opposite: Federal taxes as a percentage of gross domestic product are at their highest rate since the Second World War; antitrust assaults on the market's winners are growing; the regulations on the federal register continue to expand by 60,000 pages per year; even the Republicans' recent tax cut proposal would only mandate a minor decrease in the projected growth of government revenues. By practically every measure, government interference in the free market is growing.
If capitalism is recognized as the only practical economic system—then why is it losing out to state control? The reason is that no one, neither on the left nor the right, is willing to defend capitalism asmoral. Thus, both sides agree, whatever the practical value of capitalism, morality requires that the free market be reigned in by government regulations. The only disagreement between the two sides is over the number of regulations and the rate of their growth.
What no one has grasped yet is that capitalism is not just practical but also moral. Capitalism is the only system that fully allows and encourages the virtues necessary for human life. It is the only system that safeguards the freedom of the independent mind and recognizes the sanctity of the individual.
Every product that sustains and improves human life is made possible by the thinking of the world's creators and producers. We enjoy an abundance of food because scientists have discovered more efficient methods of agriculture, such as fertilization and crop rotation. We enjoy a lifespan double that of the pre-industrial era thanks to advances in medical technology, from antibiotics to X-rays to biotechnology, discovered by doctors and medical researchers. We enjoy the comfort of air conditioning, the speed of airline transportation, the easy access to information made possible by the World Wide Web—because scientists and inventors have made the crucial mental connections necessary to create these products.
Most people recognize the right of scientists and engineers to be free to ask questions, to pursue new ideas, and to create new innovations. But at the same time, most people ignore the third man who is essential to human progress: the businessman. The businessman is the one who takes the achievements of the scientists and engineers out of the realm of theory and turns them into reality; he takes their ideas off the chalkboards and out of the laboratories and puts them onto the store shelves.
Behind the activities of the businessman there is a process of rational inquiry every bit as important as that of the scientist or inventor. The businessman has to figure out how to find and train workers who will produce a quality product; he has to discover how to cut costs to make the product affordable; he has to determine how best to market and distribute his product so that it reaches its potential buyers; and he has to figure out how to finance his venture in a way that will best feed future growth. All of these issues—and many others—depend on the mind of the businessman. If he is not left free to think, the venture loses money and its product goes out of existence.
The businessman has to have an unwavering dedication to thinking, not only in solving these problems, but also in dealing with others. He has to use reason to persuade investors, employees, and suppliers that his venture is a profitable one. If he cannot, the investors take their money elsewhere, the best employees leave for better opportunities, and the suppliers will give preference to more credit-worthy customers.
The businessman's dedication to thought, persuasion, and reason is a virtue—a virtue that our lives and prosperity depend on. The only way to respect this virtue is to leave the businessman free to act on his own judgment. That is precisely what capitalism does. The essence of capitalism is that it bans the use of physical force and fraud in men's economic relationships. All decisions are to be left to the "free market"—that is, to the un-coerced decisions of buyers and sellers, manufacturers and distributors, employers and employees. The first rule of capitalism is that everyone has a right to dispose of his own life and property according to his own judgment.
Government regulation, by contrast, operates by thwarting the businessman's thinking, subordinating his judgment to the decrees of government officials. These officials do not have to consider the long-term results—only what is politically expedient. They do not have to back their decisions with their own money or effort—they dispose of the lives and property of others. And most important, they do not have to persuade their victims—they impose their will, not by reason, but by physical force.
The government regulator does not merely show contempt for the minds of his victims; he also shows contempt for their personal goals and values.
In a free-market economy, everyone is driven by his own ambitions for wealth and success. That's what "free trade" means: that no one may demand the work, effort, or money of another without offering to trade something of value in return. If both partners to the trade don't expect to gain, they are free to go elsewhere. In Adam Smith's famous formulation, the rule of capitalism is that every trade occurs "by mutual consent and to mutual advantage."
It is common to condemn this approach as selfish—yet to say that people are acting selfishly is to say that they take their own lives seriously, that they are exercising their right to pursue their own happiness. By contrast, project what it would mean to exterminate self-interest and force everyone to work for goals mandated by the state. It would mean, for example, that a young student's goal to have a career as a neurosurgeon must be sacrificed because some bureaucrat decrees that there are "too many" specialists in that field. Such a system is based on the premise that no one owns his own life, that the individual is merely a tool to be exploited for the ends of "society." And since "society" consists of nothing more than a group of individuals, this means that some men are to be sacrificed for the sake of others—those who claim to be "society's" representatives. For examples, see the history of the Soviet Union.
A system that sacrifices the self to "society" is a system of slavery—and a system that sacrifices thinking to coercion is a system of brutality. This is the essence of any anti-capitalist system, whether communist or fascist. And "mixed" systems, such as today's regulatory and welfare state, merely unleash the same evils on a smaller scale.
Only capitalism renounces these evils entirely. Only capitalism is fully true to the moral ideal stated in the Declaration of Independence: the individual's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Only capitalism protects the individual's freedom of thought and his right to his own life.
Only when these ideals are once again taken seriously will we be able to recognize capitalism, not as a "necessary evil," but as a moral ideal.
Opposite opinion....
The critics are right when they demand that our economic system rest on a firm moral basis. If it can be shown that it does not, then we should abandon it immediately and seek to establish a more just order. At the outset, however, important distinctions and clarifications must be made. Arthur Shenfield calls attention to one of the most vital, viz., “the economic system called capitalism is a system of relationships. It is a composition of markets, and markets are by definition systems of relationships, not purposive bodies. It follows that we can apply the tests of morality to capitalism only by considering the behavior of individuals who operate within it, not as a system capable in itself of being moral or immoral.”
It is Shenfield’s contention that since capitalism is “a system of relationships it cannot be moral or immoral in the sense that a purposive group can be . . . .” He denies, however, that such a system is morally neutral. “If its essential characteristics on balance positively nurture or reinforce moral or immoral individual behavior, it is a moral or immoral system in its effects.”[3]
Furthermore, we must repudiate the erroneous tendency of many critics to attribute to capitalistic economic phenomena, human behavior, social ills, or political crimes to which history bore witness before the birth of the capitalist system. And again, enemies of capitalism are prone to identify the market economy with society as a whole. For them, capitalism forms and permeates the whole of society, and in so doing destroys and corrupts human relationships other than those contracted for strictly economic purposes. But the truth is, the competitive market is only a part or aspect of any society.
“The market,” as John Davenport correctly observes, “is not an end in itself, but the means to higher ends.” The market is merely an element in a society which transcends and extends far beyond it. The market is but a method of recording consumer preferences and allocating resources, an information system which transmits knowledge spontaneously through the signals sent out by prices.
Allocation of Scarce Resources
All economic goods are, by definition, scarce, while the hunger of man for these goods is nearly infinite. Thus a workable economic system concerns the allocation of scarce re- sources—e.g., labor, materials, or capital—to human wants. Socialism assigns to a supposed omnicompetent state the task of deciding what people need, and then the development of a master plan as to what goods will be produced in what amounts. In the market economy, on the other hand, consumers bid on what they want via the price mechanism.
No matter what system a society employs for organizing its economic life, certain common decisions must be made. For example, all economies must decide what goods will be produced, and how the fruits of this production will be distributed. All economic systems coordinate men and materials in making these decisions in some way. The market system makes these decisions and achieves this coordination through an institution of private property rights and voluntary exchange.
From the days of Adam Smith, advocates of the free market have argued that market processes have a strong tendency to equate public benefits and private profits. Following the argument of Bernard Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees, Smith held that private vices—e.g., greed—are converted into public benefits.
A Harmony of Interests
There is, in a free market, a harmony of interests between the public and the private. Does this imply, then, that the free market, in some way, nurtures or reinforces unjust rather than just behavior? Not at all. The free market economy is the most productive form of economic organization just because it is most consistent with eternal moral principles. The economy of any society is integrally related to the moral principles and consequent values to which the society is committed and substantially adheres. Or, as Paul Johnson puts it, “The level of social morality is directly linked to the performance of the economy.”[4]
Consider the testimony of Wilhelm Roepke, one of the greatest economists of the twentieth century. He wrote: “One of the most dangerous errors of our time is to believe that economic freedom and the society which is based upon it are hardly compatible with the moral stan dards of a strictly Christian attitude.” In Roepke’s view, “the very opposite of this popular belief is true: the strongest reasons to defend economic freedom and the market economy are precisely of a moral character. It is economic freedom and the market economy which the moral standards of Christianity require, not the opposite economic system. At the same time, however, we have to say with equal force that economic freedom and the market economy re quire these moral standards. One conditions the other.”
Roepke understood that “Socialists and non-socialists are divided by fundamentally different concepts of life and life’s meaning. What we judge man’s position in the universe to be will in the end decide whether we believe our highest values to be realized in man or in society, and our decision for either the former or the latter will also be the watershed of our political thinking. Once more we find Cardinal Manning’s famous statement to be true: ‘All human differences are ultimately religious ones.’” The conclusion: “we should stand for a free economic order even if it implied material sacrifice and if socialism gave the certain prospect of material increase. It is our undeserved luck that the exact opposite is true.”[5]
The Family Unit
While keeping in mind that the market economy is only a part or aspect of society, we do contend that capitalism is more than just an economic system of voluntary relationships. Specifically, it is an economic system based on the right of private ownership of property and a free market for goods and services, consistent with the second table of the moral law.
The fifth commandment of the Decalogue, “honor thy father and thy mother,” implies that the family, not the state, is the basic social and economic unit of society and should be the strongest. R. J. Rushdoony has noted that “throughout history the basic welfare agency has been the family. The family, in providing for its sick and needy members, in educating children, caring for parents, and in coping with emergencies and disasters, has done and is doing more than the state has ever done or can do.”[6] A society characterized by a significant degree of economic freedom is always a society dominated by strong family units who provide for their own. This contrasts with socialism, whose basic goals, if realized, would destroy the family in the interests of the larger collective.
The sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” is, according to John Chamberlain “simply the other face of Locke’s and Jefferson’s ‘unalienable’ right to life.”[7] John Calvin explained it this way: “The sum of this commandment is, that we should not unjustly do violence to anyone.” “Thou shalt not kill” is thus a generic expression which also forbids wounding, violent threatening, and any unjust coercion by an individual, group, or state that would restrain legitimate liberty.
Economic freedom is born and thrives only in nations or communities where reverence for all human life is widely held to be a supreme value, where the personal safety of the neighbor and his family is generally regarded as inviolably sacred, and where compassionate individu als, acting either alone or through voluntary associations, are encouraged to offer substantial assistance to the poor and needy. This differs radically from the command society of socialism, whose adherents are frequently found not only approving but actively promoting violence, terrorism, and the destruction of the middle class. In such societies (and this would include the Welfare State) “compassion” is institutionalized, and becomes a monopoly of the state.
The seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” teaches us, as does the ninth commandment, that contracts must be honored and double-dealing scorned. “The historic link between the biblical idea of binding covenants and the Western idea of binding contracts,” writes Gary North, “is obvious enough.”[8] The very idea of contracting for joint benefit presupposes a high level of moral integrity and faithfulness on the part of all the parties engaged in the transaction.
In socialism the paternal state seeks to vitiate the necessity for the sanctity of contracts by substituting its omnipotent controls and decrees. Opportunity for moral development and the growth of trust between free men is thereby suppressed. The socialist ethic in this area is readily illustrated in the attitude of contemporary socialist bloc nations toward the fulfillment of treaty obligations. The Soviet Union, for example, has violated every treaty it has ever made. Lacking an unchanging moral foundation, there is nothing in the socialist ethic to condemn such action.
Private Ownership
The right of private ownership is based on the eighth commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, this commandment requires “the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.” The commandment forbids “whatsoever doth or may unjustly hinder our own or our neighbor’s wealth or outward estate.” The eighth commandment “means that the Bible countenances private property—for if a thing is not owned in the first place it can hardly be stolen.”[9]
Harold Lindsell, in the course of explicating the hatred of socialist intellectuals for private property, unmasks the latent hypocrisy usually present. He observes that “ideas are property too. Professors who write books to expound their ideas secure copyrights which protect their words against plagiarism. Das Kapital by Karl Marx was protected by copyright. Just try to find a new book published by a socialist which is not protected by a copyright! The simple truth is that socialists consistently violate their basic premise about private property in areas such as this so that they may profit from their labors!”[10]
The ninth commandment forbids lying. The whole idea of a free market implies that the parties to this voluntary exchange will not deceive each other. The doctrine of the harmony of interests in freedom largely depends for its working upon substantial voluntary compliance with this command.
Lying is an inescapable concomitant of socialism. The socialists must forever condemn profits, for instance, and the profit motive. But the truth is, socialist nations are just as profit- minded as are capitalist nations. The difference: In capitalist nations the individual reaps the profits and decides how they will be used; in Socialist nations the state reaps the profits and determines what to do with them. So lying, even about its basic tenets, is crucial to socialism.
The tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” “means that it is sinful even to contemplate the seizure of another man’s goods—which is something which Socialists, whether Christians or otherwise, have never managed to explain away.”[11] Coveting is a root of all social evil.
How Envy Destroys
Envy, a central aspect of covetousness, involves not only the desire to possess another’s property, but also—and perhaps more heinous—the desire to see another’s wealth or station reduced to the level of one’s own. “Envy is ineluctable, implacable and irreconcilable, is irritated by the slightest differences, is independent of the degree of inequality, appears in its worst form in social proximity or among near relations, provides the dynamic for every social revolution, yet cannot of itself produce any kind of coherent revolutionary programme.”[12]
Rushdoony points out that the tenth commandment “forbids the expropriation by fraud or deceit of that which belongs to our neighbor. The tenth commandment therefore does sum up commandments six through nine and gives them an additional perspective. The other com mandments deal with obviously illegal acts, i.e., clear cut violations of law. The tenth commandment can be broken within these laws.” This law forbidding dishonest gain “is directed by God, not merely to the individual, but to the state and all institutions. The state can be and often is as guilty as are any individuals, and the state is often used as the legal means whereby others are defrauded of their possessions.”[13] Socialism, through its employment of the police powers of the state for the purpose of expropriating the wealth of producers to transfer to nonproducers, is a form of institutionalized envy.
Christ summarized the second table of the law like this: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Shenfield observes that we usually understand the command to love our neighbor “to mean to heal the sick, to succor the poor, to relieve human distress of all kinds, and the like.” He then suggests that whatever else such love means, “It must mean that one wishes one’s neighbor to have what one most values for oneself . . . .” In the final analysis, “what we want above all for ourselves, and which therefore we must accord to our neighbor, is freedom to pursue our own purposes.”
The critics are right when they demand that our economic system rest on a firm moral basis. If it can be shown that it does not, then we should abandon it immediately and seek to establish a more just order. At the outset, however, important distinctions and clarifications must be made. Arthur Shenfield calls attention to one of the most vital, viz., “the economic system called capitalism is a system of relationships. It is a composition of markets, and markets are by definition systems of relationships, not purposive bodies. It follows that we can apply the tests of morality to capitalism only by considering the behavior of individuals who operate within it, not as a system capable in itself of being moral or immoral.”
It is Shenfield’s contention that since capitalism is “a system of relationships it cannot be moral or immoral in the sense that a purposive group can be . . . .” He denies, however, that such a system is morally neutral. “If its essential characteristics on balance positively nurture or reinforce moral or immoral individual behavior, it is a moral or immoral system in its effects.”[3]
Furthermore, we must repudiate the erroneous tendency of many critics to attribute to capitalistic economic phenomena, human behavior, social ills, or political crimes to which history bore witness before the birth of the capitalist system. And again, enemies of capitalism are prone to identify the market economy with society as a whole. For them, capitalism forms and permeates the whole of society, and in so doing destroys and corrupts human relationships other than those contracted for strictly economic purposes. But the truth is, the competitive market is only a part or aspect of any society.
“The market,” as John Davenport correctly observes, “is not an end in itself, but the means to higher ends.” The market is merely an element in a society which transcends and extends far beyond it. The market is but a method of recording consumer preferences and allocating resources, an information system which transmits knowledge spontaneously through the signals sent out by prices.
Allocation of Scarce Resources
All economic goods are, by definition, scarce, while the hunger of man for these goods is nearly infinite. Thus a workable economic system concerns the allocation of scarce re- sources—e.g., labor, materials, or capital—to human wants. Socialism assigns to a supposed omnicompetent state the task of deciding what people need, and then the development of a master plan as to what goods will be produced in what amounts. In the market economy, on the other hand, consumers bid on what they want via the price mechanism.
No matter what system a society employs for organizing its economic life, certain common decisions must be made. For example, all economies must decide what goods will be produced, and how the fruits of this production will be distributed. All economic systems coordinate men and materials in making these decisions in some way. The market system makes these decisions and achieves this coordination through an institution of private property rights and voluntary exchange.
From the days of Adam Smith, advocates of the free market have argued that market processes have a strong tendency to equate public benefits and private profits. Following the argument of Bernard Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees, Smith held that private vices—e.g., greed—are converted into public benefits.
A Harmony of Interests
There is, in a free market, a harmony of interests between the public and the private. Does this imply, then, that the free market, in some way, nurtures or reinforces unjust rather than just behavior? Not at all. The free market economy is the most productive form of economic organization just because it is most consistent with eternal moral principles. The economy of any society is integrally related to the moral principles and consequent values to which the society is committed and substantially adheres. Or, as Paul Johnson puts it, “The level of social morality is directly linked to the performance of the economy.”[4]
Consider the testimony of Wilhelm Roepke, one of the greatest economists of the twentieth century. He wrote: “One of the most dangerous errors of our time is to believe that economic freedom and the society which is based upon it are hardly compatible with the moral stan dards of a strictly Christian attitude.” In Roepke’s view, “the very opposite of this popular belief is true: the strongest reasons to defend economic freedom and the market economy are precisely of a moral character. It is economic freedom and the market economy which the moral standards of Christianity require, not the opposite economic system. At the same time, however, we have to say with equal force that economic freedom and the market economy re quire these moral standards. One conditions the other.”
Roepke understood that “Socialists and non-socialists are divided by fundamentally different concepts of life and life’s meaning. What we judge man’s position in the universe to be will in the end decide whether we believe our highest values to be realized in man or in society, and our decision for either the former or the latter will also be the watershed of our political thinking. Once more we find Cardinal Manning’s famous statement to be true: ‘All human differences are ultimately religious ones.’” The conclusion: “we should stand for a free economic order even if it implied material sacrifice and if socialism gave the certain prospect of material increase. It is our undeserved luck that the exact opposite is true.”[5]
The Family Unit
While keeping in mind that the market economy is only a part or aspect of society, we do contend that capitalism is more than just an economic system of voluntary relationships. Specifically, it is an economic system based on the right of private ownership of property and a free market for goods and services, consistent with the second table of the moral law.
The fifth commandment of the Decalogue, “honor thy father and thy mother,” implies that the family, not the state, is the basic social and economic unit of society and should be the strongest. R. J. Rushdoony has noted that “throughout history the basic welfare agency has been the family. The family, in providing for its sick and needy members, in educating children, caring for parents, and in coping with emergencies and disasters, has done and is doing more than the state has ever done or can do.”[6] A society characterized by a significant degree of economic freedom is always a society dominated by strong family units who provide for their own. This contrasts with socialism, whose basic goals, if realized, would destroy the family in the interests of the larger collective.
The sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” is, according to John Chamberlain “simply the other face of Locke’s and Jefferson’s ‘unalienable’ right to life.”[7] John Calvin explained it this way: “The sum of this commandment is, that we should not unjustly do violence to anyone.” “Thou shalt not kill” is thus a generic expression which also forbids wounding, violent threatening, and any unjust coercion by an individual, group, or state that would restrain legitimate liberty.
Economic freedom is born and thrives only in nations or communities where reverence for all human life is widely held to be a supreme value, where the personal safety of the neighbor and his family is generally regarded as inviolably sacred, and where compassionate individu als, acting either alone or through voluntary associations, are encouraged to offer substantial assistance to the poor and needy. This differs radically from the command society of socialism, whose adherents are frequently found not only approving but actively promoting violence, terrorism, and the destruction of the middle class. In such societies (and this would include the Welfare State) “compassion” is institutionalized, and becomes a monopoly of the state.
The seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” teaches us, as does the ninth commandment, that contracts must be honored and double-dealing scorned. “The historic link between the biblical idea of binding covenants and the Western idea of binding contracts,” writes Gary North, “is obvious enough.”[8] The very idea of contracting for joint benefit presupposes a high level of moral integrity and faithfulness on the part of all the parties engaged in the transaction.
In socialism the paternal state seeks to vitiate the necessity for the sanctity of contracts by substituting its omnipotent controls and decrees. Opportunity for moral development and the growth of trust between free men is thereby suppressed. The socialist ethic in this area is readily illustrated in the attitude of contemporary socialist bloc nations toward the fulfillment of treaty obligations. The Soviet Union, for example, has violated every treaty it has ever made. Lacking an unchanging moral foundation, there is nothing in the socialist ethic to condemn such action.
Private Ownership
The right of private ownership is based on the eighth commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, this commandment requires “the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.” The commandment forbids “whatsoever doth or may unjustly hinder our own or our neighbor’s wealth or outward estate.” The eighth commandment “means that the Bible countenances private property—for if a thing is not owned in the first place it can hardly be stolen.”[9]
Harold Lindsell, in the course of explicating the hatred of socialist intellectuals for private property, unmasks the latent hypocrisy usually present. He observes that “ideas are property too. Professors who write books to expound their ideas secure copyrights which protect their words against plagiarism. Das Kapital by Karl Marx was protected by copyright. Just try to find a new book published by a socialist which is not protected by a copyright! The simple truth is that socialists consistently violate their basic premise about private property in areas such as this so that they may profit from their labors!”[10]
The ninth commandment forbids lying. The whole idea of a free market implies that the parties to this voluntary exchange will not deceive each other. The doctrine of the harmony of interests in freedom largely depends for its working upon substantial voluntary compliance with this command.
Lying is an inescapable concomitant of socialism. The socialists must forever condemn profits, for instance, and the profit motive. But the truth is, socialist nations are just as profit- minded as are capitalist nations. The difference: In capitalist nations the individual reaps the profits and decides how they will be used; in Socialist nations the state reaps the profits and determines what to do with them. So lying, even about its basic tenets, is crucial to socialism.
The tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” “means that it is sinful even to contemplate the seizure of another man’s goods—which is something which Socialists, whether Christians or otherwise, have never managed to explain away.”[11] Coveting is a root of all social evil.
How Envy Destroys
Envy, a central aspect of covetousness, involves not only the desire to possess another’s property, but also—and perhaps more heinous—the desire to see another’s wealth or station reduced to the level of one’s own. “Envy is ineluctable, implacable and irreconcilable, is irritated by the slightest differences, is independent of the degree of inequality, appears in its worst form in social proximity or among near relations, provides the dynamic for every social revolution, yet cannot of itself produce any kind of coherent revolutionary programme.”[12]
Rushdoony points out that the tenth commandment “forbids the expropriation by fraud or deceit of that which belongs to our neighbor. The tenth commandment therefore does sum up commandments six through nine and gives them an additional perspective. The other com mandments deal with obviously illegal acts, i.e., clear cut violations of law. The tenth commandment can be broken within these laws.” This law forbidding dishonest gain “is directed by God, not merely to the individual, but to the state and all institutions. The state can be and often is as guilty as are any individuals, and the state is often used as the legal means whereby others are defrauded of their possessions.”[13] Socialism, through its employment of the police powers of the state for the purpose of expropriating the wealth of producers to transfer to nonproducers, is a form of institutionalized envy.
Christ summarized the second table of the law like this: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Shenfield observes that we usually understand the command to love our neighbor “to mean to heal the sick, to succor the poor, to relieve human distress of all kinds, and the like.” He then suggests that whatever else such love means, “It must mean that one wishes one’s neighbor to have what one most values for oneself . . . .” In the final analysis, “what we want above all for ourselves, and which therefore we must accord to our neighbor, is freedom to pursue our own purposes.”
Domingo Halliburton
Handmade in USA
Karl Marx's birthday was a couple days ago. Here's my list of successful communist countries:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Of course, with "regulation" defined by specific societies, but I agree.
Theres no purely capitalistic countries either though.
Its about moderation, and I think we forget this.
I think anything over 50% socialism is a major mistake though.
time will tell for a few of them.... lets not act like Cuba and a few others have had more than a few decades to develop and test the idea.
the US is young but still had more time than most these nations.
Domingo Halliburton
Handmade in USA
I agree.
Lets not ignore that Cuba is small, has a small population and located in the backyard of the 3rd largest country in the world and most powerful country.
time will tell for a few of them.... lets not act like Cuba and a few others have had more than a few decades to develop and test the idea.
the US is young but still had more time than most these nations.
theres more at play than merely political systems
something tells me i ghost wrote this thread...
Yeah you're right.......economic and passive aggressive policies by western capitalist governments......... so that they can't flourish properly.
cuba, iraq, iran, libya would be successful nations had they not fuq with them. libya was doing much better than other countries. iraq too before they decided to abandon the petro dollar and were falsely invaded. syria too.
time will tell for a few of them.... lets not act like Cuba and a few others have had more than a few decades to develop and test the idea.
the US is young but still had more time than most these nations.
the so called capitalist zionists though will not let these other successful systems develop and will use all sorts of economic intimidation, sactions, threats and even outright war against them. they actually admire communism and are turning the united states into a socialist state cause capitalism can only take them so far.
All the anti-capitalism people can create a picket march in front of Jay-Z's home, tell him to sell all his cars and property, and then share all his money with all the poor to the point where his total personal assets would then equal $18,000, and then he would have to move into a Section 8 apartment... because all his work that he put into earning money and growing his businesses via capitalism was morally wrong.
See what he thinks about that.
See what he thinks about that.
Apply morality to systems brehs. 
You may as well discuss which is most moral between a toaster and a blender. I believe the blender to be most moral of the two because you can make amazingly tasty and healthy juices with it.
No country runs entirely on capitalism alone brehs. It's just a tool for prosperity, not the cause of it.
You may as well discuss which is most moral between a toaster and a blender. I believe the blender to be most moral of the two because you can make amazingly tasty and healthy juices with it.
No country runs entirely on capitalism alone brehs. It's just a tool for prosperity, not the cause of it.
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