Laissez-faire capitalism should be as dead as communism in this country.
Tooze believes that blind faith in
laissez-faire capitalism led to a paralyzing crisis that caused misery to millions while leaving largely intact wealthy perpetrators of the fiasco.
Munger and Villarreal-Diaz add the following: "In short, liberalism--like 'real' capitalism--requires forbearance." No, it requires jail sentences for criminal crony violators of
laissez-faire capitalism.
In my reply to a letter by Bob Vant I do not suggest that we return fully to the time of
laissez-faire capitalism, merely note that it is not necessarily a bad thing that food banks are providing an extra safety net in today's society.
Or, most interestingly, is it a stinging indictment of the sport's inadequate regulations--of predatory managers, brain trauma, and more-that led one journo to call boxing "
laissez-faire capitalism run amok"?
But there has been no failure of free trade; there has been no failure of
laissez-faire capitalism. In fact, many of us are still trying to convince the world to try both.
The lone social system consistent with the Objectivist view is one that allows individuals to do whatever they want without government interference - radical
laissez-faire capitalism. Any "regulation" needed to control harmful economic activities would come about naturally from the self-interested "greed of the businessman." Goods and services would exist only if someone could make money providing them.
To this day, the Great Depression serves as the poster child for the inherent evils of
laissez-faire capitalism, and FDR is lauded by historians for having the political courage to save the world from its excesses.
All of her books preach absolute individualism, staunch atheism, and
laissez-faire capitalism. Her philosophy is fallacious; her popularity is perplexing.
"No matter how the facts show that
laissez-faire capitalism has resulted in a global economic crisis and a government that serves corporate interests rather than the citizenry, media pundits and propagandists continue to assert that unrestrained capitalism is the only way to get out of the crisis that government has supposedly caused ...
The legal support of
laissez-faire capitalism set in motion the foundation of current corporate institutions.
Though a Democratic president has won partial reforms to restore public investment, revive economic regulation, and repair an unjust and inefficient private health-insurance system, the very idea of government as a needed counterweight to
laissez-faire capitalism remains a hard sell.