capitalism – Gus diZerega

The Corporation, American Nihilism and Mafia Capitalism

Posted on June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 by Gus

The nihilism growing in America manifests in many ways, but three are particularly worrisome. Two, Neoconservatism and the religious right, will get chapters of their own because they reflect the major forms nihilism takes while battling the cultural and spiritual … Read more

The right wing’s Orwellian manipulation of ‘socialism’

Posted on April 13, 2019April 13, 2019 by Gus

All of a sudden, some right wing online commentators are emphasizing that Scandinavian nations are “not socialist.” I am seeing this claim in many places of late. But for years, decades even, right wing commentators have called Sweden in particular … Read more

Hayekian Insights on Capitalism Part III: Capitalism and Nature

Posted on October 29, 2015October 29, 2015 by Gus

Capitalism undermines the natural systems that support human well-being for the same reason it undermines civil society: the values it elevates above all others are incompatible with human or natural flourishing. Capitalism fails to achieve the minimal ethical standards to … Read more

Hayekian Insights on Capitalism Part II: Capitalism and labor

Posted on March 19, 2015April 19, 2015 by Gus

Introduction

I am drawing a critical distinction between the role played by the market in coordinating human plans and the institutional forms people adopted in pursuing those plans. Market advocates usually assume because the market is formally voluntary, institutions arising … Read more

What’s in a Name? Capitalism, Crony Capitalism, and Corporatism: Why Terminology Matters

Posted on March 6, 2015March 7, 2015 by Gus

A number of classical liberals to whom I sent my paper on capitalism and civil society replied there is much with which they agree, but think I should use the term “crony capitalism” rather than “capitalism.” They point out my … Read more

Capitalism or Crony Capitalism? Why terminology matters.

Posted on March 3, 2015March 6, 2015 by Gus

[This post has been replaced by one somewhat newer that addresses these issues more completely. It does not reject any of what is written here but improves the analysis. I am keeping it here primarily for historical reasons and … Read more

Hayekian Insights on Capitalism and Civil Society

Posted on February 28, 2015April 20, 2015 by Gus

This is the first of a series of essays on capitalism. This, the first, is a very theoretical discussion, one relatively light on examples. However those that follow will have examples aplenty. But the theoretical framework is needed to make … Read more

Paradoxes of Freedom: Civil Society and the Market Order

Posted on November 9, 2014September 21, 2019 by Gus

Published in Cosmos and Taxis, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2014.

Abstract

Civil society maximizes individual freedom. Spontaneous orders emerge from principles expressed more completely within civil society and enable cooperation to take more complex forms than in their absence. … Read more

Private prisons as an example of the bankruptcy of libertarian ideology

Posted on April 17, 2014April 19, 2014 by Gus

As a young man I was a libertarian. In time the accumulated problems with the ideology led me to abandon it. But I remain a believer in its most fundamental moral insights (and argue libertarians haven’t any real understanding of … Read more

The meaninglessness of the term “free market” in contemporarty political debate

Posted on July 22, 2013July 23, 2013 by Gus

This post argues use of the term “free market” in almost all contemporary political debate is at best inaccurate and often a positive hindrance in understanding contemporary issues.

Advocates of capitalism continually intone the term “free market” and then, with … Read more