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04-16-2012, 12:32 PM
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"Probably the most common charge against capitalism is that it creates wealth and income inequality. The frequency of this allegation testifies to the fact that it strikes a chord with large numbers of people. It’s so believable. After all, who can deny that Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and bond traders each have vastly more money than ordinary folks do?
Friends of capitalism typically concede that it promotes greater wealth inequality. Even Ludwig von Mises wrote that “inequality of wealth and income is an essential feature of the market economy.” But, like Mises, pro-market scholars go on to point out that inequality is the price paid for the immense and widespread prosperity unquestionably made possible only by the free market. “Sure, there’s more wealth inequality,” the concession goes, “but even the poorest people are much better off with capitalism than without it.”
Equality and Capitalism | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty
capitalism/
"In the past century a myth has grown up that free market capitalism—equality of opportunity as we have interpreted that term—increases such inequalities, that it is a system under which the rich exploit the poor.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Wherever the free market has been permitted to operate, wherever anything approaching equality of opportunity has existed, the ordinary man has been able to attain levels of living never dreamed of before"
Capitalism and Equality
"If the wealthy get wealthier, no one has to become one penny poorer. This childish idea that the economy is a zero-sum game might appeal to the populist sentiments of the so-called 99 percent—or to the envious nature of some others or to the emotions of many struggling through this terrible economy—but in the end, it doesn't stand up to the most rudimentary inspection."
You Want More Equality? Support More Capitalism - Reason Magazine
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