First entry: Friday 24th of July 2009

Good morning, afternoon or night!

This is my first time blogging, so please pardon my amateur style of writing. I will not use these blogs to write down my daily activities, or trivial thoughts. Instead I will attempt to use this as a platform to defend Capitalism and Free Market. To start with, if you have read Johan Norbergs fantastic book "In defense of Global Capitalism", you don´t need to read this blog at all, as most of it comes from there. Eventually, I will also use Michael Shermers book "Mind of the market", but in a latter stage, as I believe the case for Capitalism should first be made by showing what it has done around the world, and then why it is not only the moral approach to economics, but also the logical.

So, what IS Capitalism? Well, that´s a key issue if this is to be debated. Capitalism is often misconstrued to mean many things it actually doesn´t, especially by Karl Marx and his followers today. Capitalism is not a political ideology, really, but an economical system that is based on individuals being able to pursue their own happiness through private ownership of land, or company and such. It is, in this way, a complete contrast to socialism where the government owns everything.
For Capitalism to truly work, there needs to be a free liberalized market, i.e Free Economy. This means that any person or business has the right to sell, import or export from whoever they want, no matter the geographical boundaries. This is where governments usually feel they can make a profit from entrepeneurs, by taxation and tariffs. What this actually does is that it haltens the flow of exchange between the company and the consumer, the seller and the buyer. In doing so, the inflow of money is thus prevented to run smoothly, and the pursuing of happiness for a company or an individual is restricted or sometimes even prevented by bureucratic agencies.

But why defend this system? I will quote from a review of Norbergs book;

"The particular charm of this passionate essay is that Capitalism would not interest Norberg if it were not such a mighty engine of human liberty." - Rosemary Righter, The Times of London

Because it IS such a driving force for human liberty, for democratization, for growth, for wellfare, for happiness. It is proven that Capitalism and Free Market is the system that best benefit the poor, that leads to most growth for people, that most effectively combats starvation, diseaces, illiteracy and hunger. Yet, thanks to popular media and youth being inspired by leftist entertainers (Michael Moore, for example) instead of being educated by impartial experts, Capitalism is constantly under critisicm.

I care not much for arguments. The problem with arguments are that the person best equipped lingually tends to win, even if the other side is correct. I care about facts and statistics. About objective analysis. About scientific investigation. Using only such data, Socialists don´t stand a chance. Not only because Socialism has never worked and will never work, but also becuase Capitalism has so often worked. One can, as Naomi Klein constanstly does, cherry pick examples, but when looking at the broader picture, Capitalism is by far the best system for people.

I will leave this blog for now, as I am feeling that I am getting carried away in all different directions, but hopefully I will write a new one soon, and start to go in depth by focusing on different categories one at the time.

All the best!