Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad
Finance
(1)
Market Currents

"Freeing capitalism to do what it does best won't just create national wealth and reduce...

  • Sunday, July 29, 2012, 5:48 AM ET
    "Freeing capitalism to do what it does best won't just create national wealth and reduce poverty, but expand the ability of Americans to achieve earned success — to pursue happiness," writes Charles Murray in the WSJ, where he analyzes why "capitalism has an image problem." Restoring capitalism's reputation, therefore, also includes returning the "vocabulary of virtue" to the discussion.
Track new comments on this story

This news story has 13 comments:

  • We'll tell you anything. Just give a another hit of that crack. Along with not having any money the Greeks don't have any pride or balls. People will treat you exactly the way you allow them to.
    THIS IS NOT SPARTA
    29 Jul 2012, 05:56 AM Reply Like
  • Sorry....posted under the wrong article :(
    29 Jul 2012, 09:52 AM Reply Like
  • I'd say capitalism has a substance problem, not an image problem. Part of the problem with capitalism is their belief that IMAGE IS EVERYTHING. The Substance of the problem is tha that capitalism has a good side -- but the shadow side is about theft and ponzi schemes to get people's money. Capitalism needs to deal with that shadow side.

    It's not about images. It's about truth.
    29 Jul 2012, 06:06 AM Reply Like
  • You didn't write that.
    29 Jul 2012, 06:36 AM Reply Like
  • The article sits behind a paywall, but it's well worth reading in its entirety. The author is an associate at a right wing think tank. However, much of what he says makes good sense.

    The author acknowledges that crony capitalism, or collusive capitalism as he labels it, is fundamentally wrong. He acknowledges the role of government in maintaining the rule of law and preventing the use of force, fraud or collusion in the economic realm. Finally, he notes that capitalism, when it worked to make America great, had an underpinning of moral values. It was expected that capitalists would have certain values, such as concern for the rights of others, that would limit their conduct.

    Modern capitalism is completely amoral, and condones immorality, as was demonstrated by the number of people on Wall St who knew Madoff was bogus, or that fraud in granting and securitizing mortgages was creating bogus assets, and did nothing.

    Mr. Murray then offers Romney's resume at Bain as an example of a model capitalist, a benign force of creative destruction. That's where he and I part company. Romney destroyed his records when he completed his term as Massachusetts governor. He destroyed his records after running the Olympics. He refuses to honor the standard set by his own father in disclosing 12 years of income tax returns. Dollars to donuts, the records of how he made his millions at Bain have been destroyed.

    The point is, that capitalism is the best economic system known to man. Adam Smith is well known for his Wealth of Nations and the conception of the invisible hand. That work needs to be read in the context of his earlier work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He never espoused anything remotely similar to today's immoral and predatory Financialism.

    If Romney obtained his wealth the old fashioned way - by earning it - he'll never be able to prove it: the records have been destroyed.
    29 Jul 2012, 07:02 AM Reply Like
  • Here's a good summary of how Adam Smith already covered the potential pitfalls of the kind of unfettered pseudo-capitalism that we have today:

    http://bit.ly/Ln1jis
    29 Jul 2012, 07:10 AM Reply Like
  • For "virtuous" capitalism to be respected and successful, the government regulators.. must be of the same.
    No more "looking the other way, revolving door employment opportunities between gov. and priv.sector, and gov. job security from cradle to grave."
    It can be no coincidence, that so many former gov. officials find their way into private sector employment and million dollar jobs,while so rarely the other way around.

    What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.
    29 Jul 2012, 07:29 AM Reply Like
  • Totally agree. Wealth and the aspiring for wealth has a corrupting influence on just enough to make the whole barrel of apples rotten. We have laws and regulations because we are human. Unfortunately, humans are the regulators.
    29 Jul 2012, 11:26 AM Reply Like
  • "The Bell Curve" is a great book and explains a lot about society's problems and how we can finally fix them.

    There is no better system than free market capitalism. More wealth and less poverty is its central focus.
    29 Jul 2012, 11:39 AM Reply Like
  • That was a great article from the Journal, good stuff for the gray matter!

    Think America!

    Then clean up the stain on the republic we so ignorantly foisted on the country in 2008!

    May the good lord watch over this fragile little experiment in freedom / man's self rule we so lovingly call America!

    God save the republic
    29 Jul 2012, 11:52 AM Reply Like
  • The "stain on the republic" started long before 2008!!!
    29 Jul 2012, 01:57 PM Reply Like
  • Our freedoms were trampled on from the very beginning. We are now more free to better ourselves then when the republic was founded, unless you were white and came from the right family. I am certianly more free today than I would have been in the 1700's.
    29 Jul 2012, 05:07 PM Reply Like
  • Remember, history shows that unfettered "free" capitalism can be disastrous to the working class (white collar, blue collar so called middle class) without some form of regulation to keep the scoundrels at bay. As noted above, the immoral, bad guys have bought off all the regulators. Blaming the government is currently in vogue and an excellent PR attack to distract the public at large. I agree with those you say we need a moral compass between right and wrong. Vote out all incumbents, institute McCain Feingold, reject Citizens United Big Brother with a big check book) and let's have term limits.
    29 Jul 2012, 11:16 PM Reply Like
Other date
DJIA (DIA) S&P 500 (SPY)