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CAPITALISM

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...the myth of socialism is far stronger than the
reality of capitalism. That is because capitalism
is not really an ism at all. It is what people do
if you leave them alone.
--Arnold Beichman
Hoover Institute Fellow.

Capitalism, it is said, is a system wherein
man exploits man. And communism — is
vice versa.
--Daniel Bell (1919— )
American journalist and sociologist.
_The End of Idealogy_ [1960]

Captains of Industry.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
In _Past and Present_, title of bk. 4, ch. 4 [1843]

Capitalism is about turning luxuries into necessities.
--Andrew Carnegie (1835—1919)
American businessman and philanthropist of Scottish birth.

-

Some regard private enterprise as if it were a
predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it
as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see
it for what it really is — the strong horse that
pulls the whole cart.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].


The substance of the eminent Socialist gentleman's speech
is that making a profit is a sin, but it is my belief that
the real sin is taking a loss.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].


The inherent vice of Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings;
the inherent vice of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
House of Commons speech [22 October 1945].

-

-

[John D(avison) Rockefeller] was only thirty-three when he owned
ninety percent of all American refineries and all the main
pipelines and oil cars of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Within
a few years he was the first billionaire in history.

He lived most of his life more simply than most stock-
brokers, like a frugal Scandinavian monarch. By his bedside
in his New York house he had always on hand his Bible, though
it lay on top of his bedside safe. At sixty, penitence set in. He
was very much a Victorian in his capacity to rationalize his energy
as the engine of God. And, as happened with many more of the
money barons, the coming on of arthritis convinced him that he
had made all his money for the public good. So, with complete
sincerity, he disbursed it. Through a foundation created in his own
name, he gave $530,000,000 for worldwide medical research.
I must say that he is the only philanthropist I can think of who gave
away his fortune with no strings binding its use. He was
photographed everywhere doing folksy things — attending a county
fair, teetering on the putting green, marrying off a couple of midgets
for charity — to prove that even Rockefeller was as mortal as the rest
of us and that, though he was a kind of monarch, he had the
common touch.

As he moved into his nineties people began to doubt his mortality,
but the news that he was restricted to a gruel and Graham cracker diet
brought some consolation to the poor and healthy. When he died, at
the age of ninety-eight, it was as if an emperor had gone. [ . . . ]

There were not many men like Rockefeller, but it didn't take many
to constitute a cabal of real national, continental power that
overshadowed the elected power of the Presidents of the United
States. There was Henry Clay Frick, who turned coke and iron ore into
gold, and E. H. Harriman, who collected railroads the way other men
collect stamps. There were Harriman's rival, James J. Hill, and his ally,
John Pierpont Morgan, Sr., whose specialty was money itself. And there was Frick's
sometime friend and sometime enemy, Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie had three specialties: steel, making money, and giving it
away. The son of a poor weaver, he was born in a stone cottage in
Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1835, at a time of such depression that in
the revolutionary year of 1848 the family took off for America and for
a squalid house in a grimy town called Pittsburgh. The father went back
to weaving and the mother went back to stitching shoe leather; it was
not much of a New World for them. But their twelve-year-old boy was
as shiny as an apple and as lively as a squirrel, and he went hopping up
the golden ladder rung by rung: from bobbin boy to telegraph messenger
to railroad clerk, to superintendent to director. Until iron entered his
career, if not his soul, and finally steel.

At the turn of the twentieth century he wrote an article that ended
with the heroic phrase: "Farewell, then, Age of Iron; all hail, King
Steel!" He was really proclaiming his own coronation, because he
foresaw before anybody the infinite possibilities of steel, for bridge
building and steamships, for elevators and knives and forks. Make
steel, and make it cheap, and you could own the industrial empire of
the new century. Before he was thirty, he had bought a large tract on
Oil Creek but soon turned from oil to building, and buying up, iron and
steel mills and their tributary coal and iron fields, and then the railroads
that brought their products to the Great Lakes docks, and a
steamship line that took them on to Europe. His monopoly of steel
helped him to weather the depression of 1892, and nine years later he
graciously permitted the United States Steel Corporation — formed
for the purpose — to buy him out for $250,000,000. And then he
abdicated, or retired, to a castle in the eastern highlands of Scotland.
He was sixty-five and he had eighteen years yet to live. And he now
began the career of lavish philanthropy that made his name known
around the world.

Carnegie exemplifies to me a truth about American money men that
many earnest people fail to grasp — which is that the chase and the kill
are as much fun as the prize, which you then proceed to give away.

--Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcater and journalist.
_America_ [1973]

-

As long as a relatively few men own the railroads,
the telegraph, the telephone, own the oil fields
and the gas fields and the steel mills and the
sugar refineries and the leather tanneries -- own,
in short, the sources and means of life-- they will
corrupt our politics, they will enslave the working
class, they will impoverish and debase society,
they will do all things that are needful to
perpetuate their power as the economic masters
and the political rulers of the people.
--Eugene V. Debs (1855—1926)
American socialist leader.
Speech [23 May 1908].

Here's the rule for bargains: 'Do other men for they
would do you,' That's the true business precept.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_Martin Chuzzlewit_, ch. 11 [1844]

When the shallow critics denounce the profit motive
inherent in our system of private enterprise, they
ignore the fact that it is an economic support of
every human right we possess and without it, all
rights would soon disappear.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953—1961].

-

What kind of society isn't structured on greed? The
problem of social organization is how to set up an
arrangement under which greed will do the least
harm; capitalism is that kind of a system.
--Milton Friedman (1912—2006)
American laissez-faire economist;
winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics.


History suggests that capitalism is a necessary
condition for political freedom.
--Milton Friedman (1912—2006)
American laissez-faire economist;
winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics.
_Capitalism and Freedom_ [1962]


Underlying most arguments against the free
market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
--Milton Friedman (1912—2006)
American laissez-faire economist;
winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics.

-

No two countries that both have a McDonald's
have ever fought a war against each other.
--Thomas Friedman (1953— )
American journalist.
In _N.Y. Times_ [8 December 1996].

-

Under capitalism man exploits man. And
under Communism it is just the reverse.
--John Kenneth Galbraith (1908—2006)
American economist.
_A Life in Our Times: Memoirs_ [1981]


Over the centuries those who have been blessed with wealth have
developed many remarkably ingenious and persuasive justifications
of their good fortune. The instinct of the liberal is to look at these
explanations with a rather unyielding eye. Yet in this case the facts
are inescapable. It is the increase in output in recent years, not the
redistribution of income, which has brought the greatest material
increase, the well-being of the average man. And, however
suspiciously, the liberal has come to accept the fact.
--John Kenneth Galbraith (1908—2006)
American economist.
_The Affluent Society_ [1958], pp. 96-97

-

The worst crime against working people is a
company which fails to operate at a profit.
--Samuel Gompers (1850—1924)
American labor union leader.

-

[A bank executive talks to his subordinates in a staff meeting:]

Levy transition fees. And maintenance fees. And fees for opening
an account, closing an account, having less than three accounts,
and having more than two accounts. I want to see late charges,
early charges, and surcharges on other charges. I want a fee for
foreign accounts, a fee for domestic accounts, and a fee for
accounts subject to audits. You get the picture?

Institute a contact fee, a telephone charge, a bookkeeping
adjustment charge, a sinking fee, a flotation fee, and you,
Nichols, go to the New York Public Library and — I don't care
how long it takes — find five fees that no one has ever heard
of. Look especially hard into Babylonia, the Sumerians,
Byzantium, and the Holy Roman Empire. Those guys knew
what they were doing, and they had balls.

--Mark Helprin (1947— )
American novelist and journalist.
_Memoir from Ant-Proof Case_

-

I was guilty of judging capitalism by its
operations and socialism by its hopes and
aspirations; capitalism by its works and
socialism by its literature.
--Sidney Hook (1902—1989)
American educator and social philosopher.

In a consumer society there are inevitably
two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of
addiction and the prisoners of envy.
--Ivan Illich (1926—2002)
Austrian philosopher.
_Tools for Conviviality_, ch. 3 [1973]

-

Capitalism, n. The astounding belief that
the most wickedest of men will do the most
wickedest of things for the greatest good
of everyone.
--John Maynard Keynes (1883—1946)
English economist.


The engine which drives Enterprise is
not Thrift, but Profit.
--John Maynard Keynes (1883—1946)
English economist.
_The Treatise on Money_ [1930]

-

Whether you like it or not, history is
on our side. We will bury you.
--Nikita Khrushchev (1894—1971)
Soviet statesman, Premier [1958—1964].
Speech to Western diplomats in Moscow [18 November 1956].

On the whole, with scandalous exceptions, Democracy
has given the ordinary worker more dignity than he
ever had.
--Sinclair Lewis (1885—1951)
American novelist and playwright.
_It Can't Happen Here_ [1935]

These capitalists generally act harmoniously
and in concert, to fleece the people.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of
the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.
--Karl Marx (1818—1883)
German political philosopher.

What a country wants to make it richer is never consumption, but
production. Where there is the latter, we may be sure that there
is no want of the former. To produce, implies that the producer
desires to consume; why else should he give himself useless
labor? He may not wish to consume what he himself produces,
but his motive for producing and selling is the desire to buy.
Therefore, if the producers generally produce and sell more and
more, they certainly also buy more and more.
--John Stuart Mill (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.
"The Consumer Theory of Prosperity" [1830]

Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do not
defend the interests of those rich today. They want a free hand
left to unknown men who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow...
--Ludwig von Mises (1881—1973)
Austrian-American liberatarian economist.

Normally speaking, it may be said that the forces of a
capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the
rich richer and the poor poorer and thus increase the
gap between them.
--Jawaharlal Nehru (1889—1964)
Indian statesman.
"Basic Approach" in Vincent Shean _Nehru_ [1960].

-

Any rich man does more for world peace than
all the jerks pasting VISUALIZE WORLD PEACE
bumper stickers on their cars. The worst leech
of a merger and acquisitions lawyer making
$500,000 year will, even he cheats on his taxes,
put $100,000 into the public coffers. That's
$100,000 of education, charity, or U.S. Marines.
And the Marine Corps does more for world peace
than all the Ben and Jerry's ice cream ever made.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947— )
American political satirist.


Omnipresent amid all the frenzy of Shanghai
is that famous portrait, that modern icon.
The faintly smiling, bland, yet somehow
threatening visage appears in brilliant
hues on placards and posters, and is
painted huge on the sides of buildings.
Some call him a genius. Others blame him
for the deaths of millions. There are
those who say his military reputation
is inflated, yet he conquered the
mainland in short order. Yes, it's
Colonel Sanders.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947— )
American political satirist.

-

-

America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to
'the common good,' but by the productive genius of free men
who pursued their own personal interests and the making of
their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people
to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people
better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every
new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery
or technological advance — and thus the whole country was
moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of
the way.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_Capitalism: The Unknown Deal_ [1966]


The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the
power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the
difference on his own hide — as, I think, he will. Until and unless
you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your
own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which
men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men.
Blood, whips, and guns — or dollars. Take your choice — there
is no other — and your time is running out.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_Atlas Shrugged_ [1957], ch. 2 "The Aristocracy of Pull"


When 'the common good' of a society is regarded
as something apart from and superior to the
individual good of its members, it means that
the good of some men takes precedence over the
good of others, with those others consigned to
the status of sacrificial animals.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
"What is Capitalism?" _Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal_ [1966]


It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice,
there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings.
Where there's service, there is someone being served.
The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking
of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_The Fountainhead_ [1943]


I will not attempt, in a brief lecture, to discuss
the political theory of Objectivism. Those who are
interested will find it presented in full detail in
Atlas Shrugged. I will say only that every political
system is based on and derived from a theory of ethics
— and that the Objectivist ethics is the moral base
needed by that politico-economic system which, today,
is being destroyed all over the world, destroyed
precisely for lack of a moral, philosophical defense
and validation: the original American system,
Capitalism. If it perishes, it will perish by default,
undiscovered and unidentified: no other subject has
ever been hidden by so many distortions, mis-
conceptions and misrepresentations. Today, few people
know what capitalism is, how it works and what was
its actual history.

When I say "capitalism," I mean a full, pure,
uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism-
with a separation of state and economics, in the
same way and for the same reasons as the
separation of state and church. A pure system of
capitalism has never yet existed, not even in
America; various degrees of government control
had been undercutting and distorting it from the
start. Capitalism is not the system of the past;
it is the system of the future — if mankind is to
have a future.

--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_The Virtue of Selfishness_ [1964]


The 'common good' of a collective — a race, a class, a state — was
the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over
men. Every major horror of history was committed in the name of
an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the
carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism? Does the fault lie in
men's hypocrisy or in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful
butchers were the most sincere. They believed in the perfect society
reached through the guillotine and the firing squad. Nobody questioned
their right to murder since they were murdering for an altruistic purpose.
It was accepted that man must be sacrificed for other men. Actors
change, but the course of the tragedy remains the same. A humanitarian
who starts with declarations of love for mankind and ends with a sea of
blood. It goes on and will go on so long as men believe that an action is
good if it is unselfish. That permits the altruist to act and forces his
victims to bear it. The leaders of collectivist movements ask nothing
for themselves. But observe the results.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.


Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to
achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has
not been created. Creation comes before distribution —
or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the
creator comes before the need of any possible
beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-
hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above
the man who made the gifts possible.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_The Fountainhead_ [1943] pt. 4, "Howard Roark" Ch. XVIII

-

A holding company is a thing where you hand
an accomplice the goods while the policeman
searches you.
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.

In our industrial and social system the interests of
all men are so closely intertwined that in the immense
majority of cases a straight-dealing man who by his
efficiency, by his ingenuity and industry, benefits
himself must also benefit others. Normally the man
of great productive capacity who becomes rich by
guiding the labor of other men does so by enabling
them to produce more than they could produce
without his guidance; and both he and they share in
the benefit, which comes also to the public at large.
The superficial fact that the sharing may be unequal
must never blind us to the underlying fact that there
is this sharing, and that the benefit comes in some
degree to each man involved.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
Fifth Message to Congress [5 December 1905],
quoted in Edmund Morris, _Theodore Rex_.

Entrepreneurial profit . . . is the expression of the value
of what the entrepreneur contributes to production in
exactly the same sense that wages are the value
expression of what the worker 'produces.' It is not
a profit of exploitation any more than are wages.
--Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883—1950)
Morovian-born American economist and sociologist.

Competition brings out the best in products
and the worst in people.
--David Sarnoff (1891—1971)
Russian-born American pioneer in the development
of both radio and television broadcasting.

You have a choice between the natural stability of gold and
the honesty and intelligence of the members of government.
And with all due respect for those gentlemen, I advise you,
as long as the capitalist system lasts, vote for gold.
--attributed to George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]

Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important
individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which,
united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the
growth of civilization than any other institution established by the
human race.
--William Howard Taft (1857—1930)
27th President of the United States [1909—1913]
and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court [1921—1930].
_Popular Government_ [1913], ch. 3

The public be damned! I'm working
for my stockholders.
--attributed to William H. Vanderbilt (1821—1885)
American railway magnate.

-

Less than seventy-five years after it officially began,
the contest between capitalism and socialism is over:
capitalism has won.
"Reflections: The Triumph of Capitalism"
in _New Yorker_ [23 January 1989].

-

-----

bourgeois (adj.)
1. Associated with affluent middle-class people, who are often
characterized as conventional, conservative, or materialistic
in outlook
2. According to Marxist theory, relating to the social class that
owns the means of producing wealth and is regarded as exploiting
the working class

laissez-faire [les-ey FAIR], adjective:
The principle that business, industry, trade, etc.
should operate with a minimum of regulation and
interference by government.


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