Why Not Capitalism?
You have 108 highlighted passages
You have 93 notes
Last annotated on April 27, 2017
in Joanna MT and Din by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk ContentsRead more at location 39
a proper defense of markets has to be in the language of morality, not just the language of economics.Read more at location 58
Criticism usually proceeds either from moral or cultural disapprovalRead more at location 71
CAPITALISM: NASTY THEORY, RIGHT SPECIES?Read more at location 78
Note: il tabù sulla parola socialismo il problema: ok il cap. funziona ma nn è etico: sfrutta e alimenta il ns egoismo smith mandeville rand: nn è x la benevolenza... il lamento: nn siamo abbastanza altruisti x il socialismo... da cui la critica: il socialismo ci chiede troppo tesi da confutare: l utopia è socialista... al socialismo serve l uomo nuovo l avversario: jerry cohen Edit
Michael Moore ends his film Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) with a catechism: “Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people, and that something is democracy.” By “democracy,” Moore means collective control of the means of production—that is, socialism.Read more at location 79
The term “socialism” appears on, but is buried deep within, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) 1 website, despite its repeated invections against the economic status quo and its vague call for “a new socio-political and economic alternative.”Read more at location 83
countries that tried socialism—the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, and North Korea—were hellholes.Read more at location 91
Socialist governments murdered about 100 million (and perhaps many more) of their own citizens, making socialism about as lethal as the 14th-century Black Death.Read more at location 92
Yet, despite this, many people who oppose socialism and support markets find capitalism morally uninspiring. Sure, capitalism performs better than socialism. But, we worry, that is just because we are so selfish.Read more at location 97
But many people worry this just shows we are not altruistic enough for socialism.Read more at location 101
Socialism asks us to supply benevolent philosopher-kings, but the best we can come up with is a Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot. It seems the problem is with us. Since we are selfish, greedy, and fearful, maybe market-based economies are the best we can do.Read more at location 103
Even capitalism’s greatest defenders seem to agree. Adam Smith tells us, “It is 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.Read more at location 106
Bernard Mandeville, in his famous poem “The Grumbling Hive,” says capitalism runs on vice much like biodiesel engines run on food waste.Read more at location 109
Finally, there’s Ayn Rand, “Goddess of the Market,” 7 who defends capitalism by arguing that selfishness is a virtue and altruism is evil. 8Read more at location 115
Socialism seems to answer to a higher moral calling. Perhaps the best evidence of this is that socialists so often defend their view in moral terms,Read more at location 118
The problem with socialism thus seems to be that it asks too much of us—it asks us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to share, and to never take advantage of power.Read more at location 120
Socialism says, “All for one and one for all.” But we’re more comfortable with something like, “Every man for himself.”Read more at location 122
SO, WHY NOT SOCIALISM?Read more at location 125
you probably accept the view just described: That markets are a kind of moral compromise, and that if we could harness the best within us, we would dispense with capitalism.Read more at location 126
The best spokesperson of this widely shared view is the philosopher G. A. (“Jerry”) Cohen.Read more at location 128
Capitalism has countless critics, but Cohen is perhaps its best moral critic.Read more at location 130
I debate Cohen in order to undermine the widespread belief that socialism is morally superior to capitalism.Read more at location 131
“Wonderful theory, wrong species” is to damn humanity, not socialism.Read more at location 145
THE CAMPING TRIP ARGUMENT FOR SOCIALISMRead more at location 147
Note: niente dialettica niente postmodernismo solo una vacanza in campeggio i campeggiatori vivono in un socialismo reale... immagina se vivessero in modo capitalistico Edit
Unlike many Marxists, he doesn’t rely on convoluted dialectics or postmodernist piffle.Read more at location 149
Cohen first has us imagine a camping trip among friends. Everyone wants everyone to have a great time. When the campers bring their equipment to the campsite, they stop asserting ownership rights over their stuff, and instead treat everything as a common bounty.Read more at location 154
Now, Cohen says, imagine what the camping trip would look like if the campers began to act like people do in real-life capitalism. Imagine Harry demands better food because he is good at fishing. He refuses to put his skills to use unless he gets the best fish. Sylvia demands privileges after she finds an apple tree in the woods. She refuses to share unless she gets a break from the communal chores. Leslie demands extra payment for her special knowledge of how to crack nuts. Morgan, whose father left him a well-stocked pond 30 years ago, gloats over having more food than the others.Read more at location 160
these repugnant behaviors are just what we see in real-life capitalist societies.Read more at location 171
The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Argument for Capitalism: A Parody TwoRead more at location 368
Note: il cap. è una parodia e parafrasi di choen... anzichè il campeggio il mmc la trsmissione tv 1 MM CLUBHOSE tutti hanno i loro obiettivi ma tutti si aiutano se in difficoltà immagina una versione del mmc in cui i diritti vengono accentrati nelle mani di un gov. socialista che stabilisce che fare e chiede obbedienza... chi farebbe vedere un simile show a dei bambini? ciò dimostra che tutti noi abbiamo dentro l ideale capitalistico come ideale primario 2 L IDEALE È DESIDERABILE? 3 L IDEALE È FATTIBILE COSA OSTA? Edit
I will follow Cohen’s style of argument, but instead substitute the imaginary village from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to argue that capitalism is better than socialism.Read more at location 377
Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Pete (defined as a cat), and Professor Ludwig Von Drake, and many other characters, live together in a village. There is no hierarchy among them. 2 They have separate goals and projects, but also share common aims, such as the goal that each of them should have a fulfilling lifeRead more at location 399
For example, there are communal spaces, such as amphitheaters, racetracks, obstacles courses, and parks.Read more at location 404
There are also privately owned spaces and things. Mickey Mouse owns a clubhouse that he shares with his friends. Minnie owns and runs a “Bowtique,” a hair-bow factory and store. Clarabelle Cow owns and runs a “Moo Mart” sundries store and a “Moo Muffin” factory. Donald Duck and Willie the Giant own farms. Professor Von Drake owns various inventions, including a time machine and a nanotech machine that can manufacture “mouskatools” on command.Read more at location 406
There is no violence or any threats of violence—force is not necessary to maintain social order.Read more at location 414
Village life is not all about work! The villagers spend much of their time having fun. They enjoy lightly competitive or non-competitive games, going on adventures, and producing art and music. Sometimes they do these activities alone, sometimes together in small groups, and sometimes with everyone as a whole.Read more at location 415
When bad luck strikes—e.g., when some baby ducks must be taught to fly, or when a baby dragon is lost, or when the Tick Tock Time Machine accidentally turns half the villagers into babies, or when a Gooey Goo spill creates five copies of Goofy—the villagers happily come together as a team to solve the problem, making use of their different skills and abilities.Read more at location 418
Everyone operates on principles of mutual concern, tolerance, and respect.Read more at location 422
You could imagine instead a version of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Village in which—as in socialism—the collective (or its representative, the socialist government) asserts its rights over all pieces of land or equipment, or over everyone’s bodies, minds, and talents. 3 You could imagine that the collective or the socialist government decides who will be allowed, for example, to use the hot-air balloons, or what color bows Minnie will make,Read more at location 424
Now, most people would hate that. We probably wouldn’t let our children watch that kind of show.Read more at location 430
And this means that most people are drawn to the capitalist ideal, at least in certain restricted settings.Read more at location 433
the best way to run a village,Read more at location 476
The moral principles realized in the Clubhouse Village include the principle of voluntary community, the principle of mutual respect, the principle of reciprocity, the principle of social justice, and the principle of beneficence.Read more at location 485
Part of what it means to have mutual respect is to believe that every individual matters as an end in herself.Read more at location 513
In the USSR, Venezuela, or Cuba, cooperation is based largely on greed and fear. A person does not care fundamentally, within socialist interaction, about how well or badly anyone other than herself fares.Read more at location 574
many others would instead say that while it is all right for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Village to be run on capitalist lines, there are features special to the Clubhouse Village that distinguish it from the normal life in a modern society and that consequently cast doubt on the desirability and/or feasibility of realizing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse principles in a modern society.Read more at location 591
one cannot be friends with the billions of people who compose our large international society;Read more at location 607
IV IS THE IDEAL FEASIBLE? ARE THE OBSTACLES TO IT HUMAN SELFISHNESS, OR POOR SOCIAL TECHNOLOGYRead more at location 612
The idea is that the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Village is a small village, inhabited by unusually virtuous characters, removed from the complexities of everyday life.Read more at location 616
The first putative reason why capitalism is infeasible is that people, so it is often said, are insufficiently cooperative, generous, tolerant, and respectful to meet its requirements, however cooperative, generous, tolerant, and respectful they might be in contexts as special and limited as the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Village.Read more at location 623
Yet many political scientists say that once we move past the confines of a small village, like the Clubhouse Village, we cannot make do without a powerful central authority, which maintains a powerful police force and military, imposes rules through commands, backs up these commands through violence and threats of violence, and that maintains a monopoly on the use of violence as a method of social control.Read more at location 649
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey.Read more at location 668
Perhaps in the distant future, with advances in human moral motivation and social technology, the principles of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Village could be realized.Read more at location 691
G. A. Cohen contends that we should not rest content with what we have. We can envision a better world free of oppression. We should strive to achieve that vision, if we can. I agree.Read more at location 731
Capitalism is not just better than socialism from an economic point of view, but inherently better from a moral point of view.Read more at location 734
even if everyone were morally perfect, capitalism would still be preferable to socialism.Read more at location 743
Imagine a world much like ours, but with one big difference: in this parallel world, everyone is morally perfect.Read more at location 1068
Cohen’s question is: What principles would people live by, and what institutions would they live under, if only people had perfect moral motivation? For Cohen, a theory of justice and of just institutions is a theory of ideals.Read more at location 1072
Some philosophers think there is no point asking Cohen’s question. They say the answer might provide us with little practical advice about what to do here and now.Read more at location 1075
Note: C È CHI DIFFIDA DELLE UTOPIE. COSTORO SCARTANO IL SOCIALISMO. MA NOI ACCFETTIAMO LA BUSSOLA DELL UTOPIA Edit
When I first read Cohen’s Why Not Socialism?, I realized that the essential flaw was that he was not comparing like to like. I recognized that he argued for the inherent moral superiority of socialism by comparing idealized socialism to realistic capitalism,Read more at location 1095
Arguments for capitalism, private property, and market economies often rely upon the idea that these institutions are a response to human failings, and that under utopian conditions, we would have no need of them.Read more at location 1102
More recently, Schmidtz has argued, in his “The Institution of Property,” 4 that private property is justified in order to ensure that people maintain rather than destroy resources. Private property prevents what ecologist Garrett Hardin calls the “tragedy of the commons.”Read more at location 1121
And so, again, Cohen concludes that private property and markets are merely useful social technology in light of human vice.Read more at location 1135
I noticed that the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse presented the capitalist ideal: a voluntaryist, anarchist, non-violent, respectful, loving, cooperative society.Read more at location 1140
The Clubhouse Villagers are close enough to morally perfect (and their society was small enough) that they could dispense entirely with private property. Many of the instrumental justifications for markets and private property do not apply to them. Nevertheless, even though the villagers are even more virtuous than Cohen’s socialist campers, the villagers have private property in the means of production. They have privately owned stores, farms and factories. And, in watching the show, I saw that it makes sense that they would have private property and markets, even if, strictly speaking, they don’t need to do so.Read more at location 1180
Private property makes their lives better. The best way to see that it makes sense is just to watch the show, and see if you have any moral complaint against their capitalist activities.Read more at location 1186
The philosopher Loren Lomasky points out that people (and by extension people-like mice, ducks, and giants) are project-pursuers. They have ideas and visions that they want to implement. Pursuing projects over the long term is often part (if not the only part) of what gives coherence and meaning to our lives.Read more at location 1191
Willie the Giant wants to farm. In an imaginary ideal socialist economy, the nice socialists would no doubt let Willie plow the collectively owned fields with the collectively owned plow. But that’s not good enough. Willie wants a farm that he can shape according to his vision.Read more at location 1204
Another closely related reason for having private property, even in utopia, has to do with the sheer aggravation of always having to ask permission.Read more at location 1217
The important point is that most of us need both—we need at times to participate in a larger community, and we need at times to escape to our private ventures and spaces. Without private property, we cannot do the latter.Read more at location 1229
We form relationships with some objects, with some of the things we own, with the books we write, with the artwork our children make us, and so on.Read more at location 1243
There is another reason for private property, when we try to practice utopia on a grand scale: The limits of our knowledge. We have imperfect information.Read more at location 1253
I don’t know enough about other people, what their needs and desires are, or how different objects fit into their plans or projects.Read more at location 1257
