Comments on: Capitalism cage match: Chris Berg

By: ..fred

..fred — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:34:51 +0000

i disagree, while true that one failing of communist governments was the quest for total governance, the main failing was undoubtedly rife corruption
i would say at least with communism you can blame corruption
(though the one begat the other, if you see what i mean)

corporatism however IS the ultimate expression of capitalism

what do you imagine would be the status quo without the favour trading?
would favours be granted as of right under a small government and unfettered capitalism…….a kind of feudal corporatism?

By: Chris Berg

Chris Berg — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:08:34 +0000

Fred, fair point. But I don’t think you can blame capitalism - a doctrine which advocates a tiny role for government - for the actions of an ever expanding big government.

At least with communism you could blame the total-ness of the communist government for its own negative consequences.

By: ..fred

..fred — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:15:57 +0000

“But that’s not capitalism. It’s corporatism”….
it strikes me that apologising for capitalism’s excesses and shortcomings in this fashion is pretty much akin to apologists for socialism claiming they never got a fair run because of people like lenin and mao
….if if wasn’t for those pesky kids

By: John Humphreys

John Humphreys — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:55 +0000

When somebody with a liberal mentality sees government failure (as Moore finds in his film) they conclude that the government is the problem and they call for less government intervention.

When somebody with a statist mentality sees government failure, they conclude that the problem is bad intentions or a bad person or a one-off bad scheme, and that we just need a “better” (and perhaps bigger) government and then the problem will be solved.

For statists (like Moore) every problem with government is just proof that we need a “better” government. Their faith in the concept of government intervention is unshakable.