海角大神

Excellent post by Bryan Caplan, , arguing against Sheldon Richman鈥檚 聽that we libertarians should not only not use 鈥渃apitalism鈥� as a synonym for favoring free markets, but that we should say we oppose 鈥渃apitalism,鈥� because of the term鈥檚 connotation of the historical collusion between business and the state.

I have myself for years now preferred the term anarcho-libertarian instead of anarcho-capitalist, mostly because libertarianism is about more than just free markets. But to the extent capitalism means the private ownership of the means of production鈥揳nd I think this is a defensible meaning still鈥搃t is of course libertarian. We can expect any advanced libertarian society to be 鈥渃apitalist鈥� in that it would have an industrial, productive economy where the means of production is privately owned, characterized by the division and specialization of labor (see my post ). In my view we should certainly be in favor of free markets and not adopt instead other terms like 鈥渕arket liberal鈥� or 鈥渇reed market鈥�. I鈥檓 not sure what term best describes us鈥搘e favor peace, cooperation. Perhaps Henry ,鈥� is a good one. I think it best to use capitalism to refer to a catallactic aspect of the libertarian, free society, while making it clear that we oppose corporatism and business-state collusion, and use free market or libertarian to describe our preferred socio-political order.

But, in my view, we certainly should not say we are opposed聽to capitalism (and we most certainly should not say we are for 鈥渟ocialism,鈥� !). Just as saying we are 鈥渃apitalist鈥� might imply pro-corporatist sentiments if we are not careful, saying you are against capitalism would imply you have left-libertarian sentiments such as hostility to corporations, 鈥渂ossism,鈥� and like鈥搘hich may be a subset of libertarianism but is certainly not necessary to libertarianism. We are neither left nor right; we are libertarian.

------------------------------

海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.