Innovationism:
Deirdre McCloskey says somewhere that a better name for capitalism is “innovationism” – innovationism unleashed only in societies in which private property rights are at least reasonably secure, freedom of contract is at least reasonably the norm, markets are at least reasonably free, and (importantly) the multitude of bourgeois merchants and accountants and actuaries and laborers and financial experts and… and… and… innovators are accorded at least a reasonable quantum of dignity by society at large.
Capitalism, the voluntary exchange of one product or service for another (with money as a flexible intermediary) is certainly under attack by Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Marxists as being “evil”. Their claim is that it is not “moral” and that “the little people” get hurt when the markets go sour).
Sidenote: Notice that they never talk about about the 100s of millions of “little people” that died at the hands of those leading the Progressive / Socialist / Marxist / Communist regimes in the Soviet Union, China, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, et al.
What needs to be stated, over and over again, that we are losing the ability to have that voluntary exchange as Government (and those that “know better for us” – actually, the Progressives / Socialists / Marxists / Communists that work for an in Obama’s administration) outlines how ‘free markets’ are to behave by fiat.
After all, Capitalism only succeeds when someone “serves another’s interest” –
…if someone or some company does not or cannot meet another’s needs, it will go out of business (and should – it should not be supported by Government simply because a Government flack thinks it is a good idea). Innovation is part and parcel of this equation – if one can innovate a process or material for an existing offering, they do a better job at solving another’s needs. Yes, in doing so, they serve their own self-interest (too often over the top denigrated as simply greed by the P/S/M/Cs).
But notice in the above quote – certain things must be in place in order for people to practice innovationism – and it is those things that Obama’s Administration are stepping all over by their actions even as their lying lips are moving.
Such a lesson from lowly Styrofoam.
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
