Special to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

“What is called a Planned Economy is no Economy at all. It is just a system of GROPING ABOUT IN THE DARK.”
—Ludwig von Mises

Many people conflate forms of government with economics. This is somewhat understandable because governments DO exercise great influence over the economic activity within their control. But conflating government and economics has led to serious misunderstandings about cause and effect. This is clearly visible in the large number of attempts at blaming “Capitalism” for the evils being committed by Governments and their Crony Corporations!

Totalitarianism, communism, socialism, nationalism, fascism (Crony-Corporatism), democracy, republic, mini-statism (usually mislabeled as “minarchy”) and micro-statism are ALL forms of GOVERNMENT (statism) with authoritarian rulers exercising varying degrees of imposed control over individuals and their economic activities. By way of contrast, anarchy is the absence of such rulers and autarchy* is self rule.

Capitalism is an ECONOMIC system, NOT a form of governance nor government! Capitalism is a spontaneous, un-regulated, free-trade economic system. The efficacy of a particular instance of Capitalism is highly dependent upon the particular form of government and the quantity and severity of regulations that are enforced in a particular geographical area. Historically, the more authoritarian governments have more rules and regulations to control their Planned Economy. And historically, the less government and fewer regulations, the better the economy works. To obtain the most individual freedom the logical conclusion is NO government* and its economic consequence: full, un-regulated, free-trade, laissez-faire Capitalism. This political-economic combination is often called anarcho-capitalism.

Each and every Corporation in the world is LICENSED by some government, somewhere and CONTROLLED by that government's REGULATIONS. Corporations WILL DO what their government masters dictate—or else they will cease to exist!

GOVERNMENTS—not corporations—have the monopoly power to:

• Create and abolish laws
• Enforce laws with guns and prisons
• Decide whether to prosecute a crime
• Act as judge in cases against itself
• Create money in any quantity
• Bail out any insolvent corporation
• Price fix interest rates on money and any other product or service
• Ban any product or service
• Impose taxes on any product or service.

But this is a double-edged sword. Corporations, especially the wealthier ones, can and do bribe government agents to create regulations masquerading as “laws” that stifle and inhibit competition. Government agents are fully aware of the personal financial gains (bribes) possible and embrace this system.

This cozy relationship between Government and Corporations began in modern times when, what later became the British East India Company, received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth on 31 December 1600, granting an exclusive monopoly and for which she received “compensations”. In the 20th Century, this political-economic combination was called Fascism. The 21st Century name is Crony-Corporatism.

STOP BLAMING “CAPITALISM” FOR THE EVILS BEING COMMITTED BY GOVERNMENTS AND THEIR CRONY CORPORATIONS!

* For a recommended, personalized system of GOVERNANCE, see the articles at the following links.

The Bare Minimum

Autarchy vs Anarchy

Autarchy is self-rule

RELATED ARTICLE:
Capitalism vs Planned Economy—Capitalism ALWAYS wins!

See the excerpt from CAPITALISM ALWAYS WINS! by Simon Black

TAGS: #Communism #Socialism #Fascism #Statism #Collectivism #Government #Vietnam #Venezuela #regulations #Capitalism

This article was originally published on Mr. Wilson's website at [this link]

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