Why Not Capitalism?

Amazon.com Price: $32.95 (as of 11/10/2019 06:10 PST- Details)

Description

Most economists consider capitalism is a compromise with selfish human nature. As Adam Smith put it, “It’s not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” Capitalism works better than socialism, in step with this thinking, only because we don’t seem to be kind and generous enough to make socialism work. If we were saints, we would be socialists.

In Why Not Capitalism?, Jason Brennan attacks this widely held belief, arguing that capitalism would remain the most efficient system even though we were morally perfect. Even in an ideal world, private property and free markets would be one of the simplest ways to promote mutual cooperation, social justice, harmony, and prosperity. Socialists searching for to capture the moral high ground by showing that ideal socialism is morally superior to realistic capitalism. But, Brennan responds, ideal capitalism is superior to ideal socialism, and so capitalism beats socialism at each and every level.

Clearly, engagingly, and at times provocatively written, Why Not Capitalism? will cause readers of all political persuasions to re-evaluate where they stand vis-à-vis economic priorities and systems―as they exist now and as they might be improved someday.



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