Twilight Capitalism: American Turns Socialist; Russia, China . . . ?
Growing up in the United States, I was incessantly bombarded by propaganda about the Reds, namely, Russia and China. They were the enemies of freedom, prosperity, progress, and capitalism. We, on the other hand, were the champions of liberty and free markets. Of course, there was more than a little bit of truth behind the propaganda. With mass-murdering leaders such as Stalin and Mao, Russia and China caused the deaths of tens of millions of innocent victims with 5-year plans and Great Leaps Forward, and those numbers are probably way too generous. There is no way to tell how many people truly suffered and continue to suffer under the iron fist of planned economies and politburos. The effects are still being felt today, because once a bureaucrat, truly the lowliest of creatures, puts his greedy hands on the free market, it is impossible to know the ripple effects his regulation will cause. But that was then.
And now? Did we learn at all from the lessons of history? Apparently not. In fact, quite the opposite. America, having just recovered from a quasi Republican president who claimed that the only way to save the free market was by abandoning free market principles and expanding government more than any president since Lyndon Johnson, now has a president who is all too happy to abandon free market principles without any prodding and is on the march towards global warming legislation (cap and trade), universal health care (though an epic fail so far), regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant (beyond absurd), and redistributing wealth. In the 2008 Election we witnessed two economically illiterate candidates both bash the free market and constantly label free marketeers as greedy and unethical, all the while failing to mention government's own role in the crisis and acting as if politicians have no self-interests and are models of ethics.
Adding to this world-turned-upside-down are very ironic occurrences in contemporary politics. We have China pursuing its national self-interests, as it should, and America pushing for global utopianism and heavy-handed global regulation in Copenhagen. Widely seen as authoritarian, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, had the following advice for Obama:
Is America on the road to serfdom? Who knows, but I think it is certain that we are no longer on the road to liberty. Dropping our ridiculous admiration for philosopher kings would help, but that's not all. Businesses are the first enemies of free markets. This is not capitalism. This is socialism, corporatism, or whatever you want to call it. It is the ultimate form of selfishness and greed to demand legislation to line your own pockets, and that applies equally to the welfare recipient and the corporate fatcat who leans on his cronies in Washington to abuse taxpayers' dollars. Deregulation would end the plundering of the masses by political hacks and cronies. Until we gain trust again in the free market principles that made America the strongest, freest country on the face of the planet, we will continue to suffer at the hands of demagogues and false leaders.
And now? Did we learn at all from the lessons of history? Apparently not. In fact, quite the opposite. America, having just recovered from a quasi Republican president who claimed that the only way to save the free market was by abandoning free market principles and expanding government more than any president since Lyndon Johnson, now has a president who is all too happy to abandon free market principles without any prodding and is on the march towards global warming legislation (cap and trade), universal health care (though an epic fail so far), regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant (beyond absurd), and redistributing wealth. In the 2008 Election we witnessed two economically illiterate candidates both bash the free market and constantly label free marketeers as greedy and unethical, all the while failing to mention government's own role in the crisis and acting as if politicians have no self-interests and are models of ethics.
Adding to this world-turned-upside-down are very ironic occurrences in contemporary politics. We have China pursuing its national self-interests, as it should, and America pushing for global utopianism and heavy-handed global regulation in Copenhagen. Widely seen as authoritarian, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, had the following advice for Obama:
In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute . . . In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated . . . Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of freeenterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility ofbusiness people, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, isbeing eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe thatwe can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto thestate . . . we must assess the real situation and write off all hopeless debtsand ‘bad’ assets. True, this will be an extremely painful andunpleasant process. Far from everyone can accept such measures, fearingfor their capitalization, bonuses, or reputation. However, we would‘conserve’ and prolong the crisis, unless we clean up our balancesheets . . . The time for enlightenment has come. We must calmly, and withoutgloating, assess the root causes of this situation and try to peek intothe future.Unfortunately, the time for enlightenment has come and gone. One would have thought the lessons of planned economies were clear. However, Americans still suffer from the "better king syndrome". Instead of giving liberty back to the people, people often look for a stronger leader who can make things right again. We see it in every election with journalists fawning over the personal characteristics of the supposed leader, as if this one will be different than the last one somehow. We see cults of personality formed around each president. The only problem is that there is no king that can rule the free market, because it is not designed by humans, which is why it works, unlike anything else two humans try to agree upon. Modern intellectuals, blind and arrogant, often assume that they could plan society better than the last generation of intellectually dishonest and corrupt intellectuals. So, inevitably, we end up with a new program to fix the program that was put into place to repair the old program that didn't work. This longing for a leader and the vicious cycle that ensues are depicted brilliantly in Friedrich von Hayek's short cartoon film, "The Road to Serfdom":
Is America on the road to serfdom? Who knows, but I think it is certain that we are no longer on the road to liberty. Dropping our ridiculous admiration for philosopher kings would help, but that's not all. Businesses are the first enemies of free markets. This is not capitalism. This is socialism, corporatism, or whatever you want to call it. It is the ultimate form of selfishness and greed to demand legislation to line your own pockets, and that applies equally to the welfare recipient and the corporate fatcat who leans on his cronies in Washington to abuse taxpayers' dollars. Deregulation would end the plundering of the masses by political hacks and cronies. Until we gain trust again in the free market principles that made America the strongest, freest country on the face of the planet, we will continue to suffer at the hands of demagogues and false leaders.
Posted by Michael at 12/19/2009 4:02 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Russia Road to Serfdom America Libertarianism Hayek Video Capitalism China Socialist
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Russia Road to Serfdom America Libertarianism Hayek Video Capitalism China Socialist
Yeah right! Capitalism caused the crisis. You're just a tinhat, corporate hack
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I have been living in Eastern Europe for the last 5 years and am in Russia frequently. Capitalism is flourishing everywhere here. Doing business is still difficult because they do not yet understand proper regulatory and tax audit concepts.
Their system and every capitalistic system is however doomed to failure. Until the business schools start teaching "stopping sense" and people come to understand the reason to "work" is to earn enough money so you do not have to work and then get the hell out of the way and give someone else a chance we will continue a destructive cycle of concentration of wealth followed by upheaval of the masses against the wealthy. Its coming soon to America.
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Ralph,
You're right. I spent two years in Russia (speak Russian fluently) and now live in Germany (working on German). I also spent some time in China. It's truly frightening what awaits us from this viewpoint. And your comments are spot on.
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