capitalism does not exist

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was on Charlie Rose's show, explaining how "capitalism will be different" (when Obama gets done with it, I suppose).

The origin of "capitalism" is not in economics or trade, it's in property.  Capital has recognizable latin roots as a word for "head," and came to represent wealth in one of its earliest forms: the accumulation of livestock commonly measured in "heads" of cattle.

It was Karl Marx who pioneered the use of capitalism to describe our economic system.  Marx had very glorious (and, ultimately, very bloody) plans for a workers' paradise where property does not exist, and he needed a name for the alternative where property could be accumulated by industrialists who then used it to exploit the workers.

Marx named his alternative capitalism, and though capitalism has come to be portrayed as a structured, free market, economic alternative to his central planning elitism, it's really nothing of the sort.  That's just the kind of packaging leftist control freaks like to wrap around our system to make it look like they can actually control it with any level of competence.

In fact, what they're referring to is freedom itself.  Capitalism is not something people "set up" -- it's just what happens when free people exercise the property rights that make them free, working to turn more and more of their labor into more and more value. 

Capitalism itself does not exist, it's simply a term that gives statists cover from which to attack your property rights without having to admit that what they're after is your freedom.  The next time you hear a lib complain about "unbridled capitalism," remember that what he loathes is unbridled freedom, and that what he plans to do is bridle it.  He only calls it capitalism because "bridled freedom" is such an obvious oxymoron.

This post from Say Anything nails it:

What irks me is that Geithner keeps talking about how our markets weren’t “designed” to withstand the sort of stress they’ve been put under, as if there were some grand architect or engineering board somewhere that drew out blueprints for our economy that we’ve been following all along.  I’m not surprised that a big government liberal who is arrogant enough to not only think that the political elite should manage the economy, but that they can in any sort of a successful manner, would believe this.  But it simply isn’t true.

The truth about free markets is that there is no design.  People simply make decisions that are the best for them, operating within a basic framework of laws against things like fraud and theft.  Capitalism wasn’t designed, as much as the liberal left might think it to be, it is simply what happens when free people are allowed to make free decisions.

Regardless what Geithner thinks (or says) they're going to do, the message is clear:  it is freedom that they intend to change.  And whatever's left of it, they're going to tell you that's freedom.  But if it's under their terms, then how free do you think it will really be?

That's the John Galt Line.

Comments

[Michael Alexis]

Awesome post. I'm printing this out for my teenager to read.