| | Thanks for the bump and the nice words.
Michael, you asked:
"Can you give an example of one of your reasons for believing that Capitalism is good having been refuted?"
I can think of many different arguments for Capitalism that are really empirical claims, and so may not be true. Let me throw some examples out.
1.) Charity will increase with lower taxes.
2.) The quality of television programming will increase with more freedom.
3.) Without the disruptive force of government monetary policy, the boom/bust cycle would end.
4.) Market pressures would naturally lead to lower levels of pollution.
5.) Without minimum wage laws and other government distortions in the labor market, unemployment would virtually disappear.
I think there are a lot of arguments for how things would change if we moved to a more capitalist society. And while many of the argument appear sound, there could be other factors as well. Maybe open immigration would cause all kinds of effects like increasing unemployment, lowering real wages, etc. Maybe it'd be "temporary", but is that years or decades or what? Or maybe the culture leans to much towards irresponsibility right now and that might take generations to change. And maybe it'd change in profoundly different ways.
These empirical questions don't necessarily refute the case for capitalism, depending on the moral justification one has for it. A morality of individualism and self-interest might see the argument that a free society would be a generous society as a nice bonus, but not critical because capitalism isn't a means to altruistic ends. But a conservative might view that point as crucial, and would be willing to accept less freedom if it meant helping others.
(Edited by Joseph Rowlands on 6/16, 3:52am)
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