Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Is Capitalism Moral? [VIDEO]
Prager U via GoogTube ^ | 14SEP2015 | Walter Williams

Posted on 09/14/2015 6:45:31 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine

Is capitalism moral or greedy? If it's based on greed and selfishness, what's the best alternative economic system? Perhaps socialism? And if capitalism is moral, what makes it so? Walter Williams, a renowned economist at George Mason University, answers these questions and more.

You can support Prager University by clicking here. Free videos are great, but to continue producing high-quality content, even small contributions are greater.

LIKE us on Facebook!

Follow us on Twitter!

If you are an educator and are interested in using material like this in your classroom, click here.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: capitalism; morality
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

1 posted on 09/14/2015 6:45:31 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

depends - is it greed to want to keep what you earn, or to control what others earn?


2 posted on 09/14/2015 6:48:35 AM PDT by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

Capitalism is the most deeply moral economic system that ever existed. It pulled literally hundreds of millions out of poverty. It creates the only mechanism to rationally allocate the earth’s resources. It is better at protecting the environment than statism. The state and state control of the economy may be OK in theory but in practice it is deeply corrupt and evil.


3 posted on 09/14/2015 6:51:25 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

Socialism like to pretend greed only exist in capitalism. The most greediest people are Socialists


4 posted on 09/14/2015 6:51:58 AM PDT by 4rcane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 4rcane

In capitalism, greed is controlled by fear of losing. Under Socialist, greed get out of control because there’s no fear of lost


5 posted on 09/14/2015 6:53:04 AM PDT by 4rcane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 4rcane

Socialism is the personification of envy. Envy is used as an excuse to execute greed on behalf of others for their own benefit.


6 posted on 09/14/2015 7:00:39 AM PDT by GraceG (Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

I have not lived under capitalism. With the FED contorting money, the unelected make laws and control business Capitalism had freely functioned in the USA.

Are Communism, Socialism, Islamic States... Moral? They have killed more people than all other sources of death combined.


7 posted on 09/14/2015 7:02:51 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine
Capitalism = private property

That means millions of individual competing interests which means freedom and individual liberty , competition, accountability to customers, efficiency and increasing technology. capitalism is home ownership, small businesses, entrepreneurs.

The more government regulations and the more government takes over an industry the less efficient and more corrupt it is. Industries where there is more government involvement or regulations as in the government schools, VA, Obama care etc. are less efficient than those where government is less involves as in the software,Internet industries, or electronics industry which have less government involvement. Government schools ,VA, vs Amazon , dollar tree , Toyota, Samsung, APPle, Google

Socialism is the opposite . socialism doesn't work, results in tyranny inefficiency, poverty for all, bread lines, oppression and misery for all .See what's happening in Venezuela.

socialism doesn't work because it is a government monopoly.

In socialism government owns everything (single payer healthcare) so there is government monopoly. That means tyranny, oppression, government unaccountability , government oppression, poverty for all,

socialism = government monopoly = tyranny and a dictator as in Chavez, Castro , Stalin, Pol pot,

8 posted on 09/14/2015 7:04:46 AM PDT by Democrat_media (obamatrade is a Trojan horse for unlimited immigration and Amnesty to the USA)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-11/human-cost-socialism-power


9 posted on 09/14/2015 7:09:18 AM PDT by johnny reb (When in the course of human events.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

If Capitalism is not moral, then how is Socialism moral for being GREEDY and wanting what others earn? Isn’t that stealing? Is stealing moral?


10 posted on 09/14/2015 7:10:06 AM PDT by Mr. K (If it is HilLIARy -vs- Jeb! then I am writing-in Palin/Cruz)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Democrat_media

Don’t forget that Thanksgiving Day is fast approaching. It is the holiday that celebrates free enterprise capitalism over collectivism!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igdCrePWTF4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66QdQErc8JQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbjpzh087uU


11 posted on 09/14/2015 7:10:07 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

BINGO!

Winner, winner chicken dinner!


12 posted on 09/14/2015 7:11:32 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

People are moral, Capitalism is neutral. It is as moral as the people utilizing the Capital.


13 posted on 09/14/2015 7:13:01 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine
Thou shalt not covet ... anything that is thy neighbors.

Therein lies the immorality of every economic system other than capitalism. All other systems involve forceful confiscation of thy neighbor's property. In capitalism, if you want something that belongs to someone else, you must produce something of value to exchange for it.

14 posted on 09/14/2015 7:15:45 AM PDT by VRWCmember
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 4rcane

Capitalists are wrongly given the label of “Greedy” just because they want to keep the fruits of their labor for themselves and families.

In fact it is the socialists who are the real greedy ones.
-They want what they have not earned.

Indeed the justification for the redistribution of wealth can be boiled down to theft based on envy justified by the application of guilt.

I am sad to say, I think class war is inevitable.


15 posted on 09/14/2015 7:26:20 AM PDT by Wildbill22 (They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton Williams Abrams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: VRWCmember

Well put.


16 posted on 09/14/2015 7:27:36 AM PDT by Wildbill22 (They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton Williams Abrams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

You get the Excellence in a nutshell award today.


17 posted on 09/14/2015 7:31:45 AM PDT by Excellence (Marine mom since April 11, 2014)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

That is a very good point. Left wing wants to apply a moral quality to material in general. Look at the basis of gun control, which is that an inanimate object can have a moral quality. The left in fact defines morality in terms of the material.

Dialectical Materialism introduced by Marx tried to redefine morality in terms of material instead of spiritual context.


18 posted on 09/14/2015 7:33:40 AM PDT by Wildbill22 (They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards- Gen Creighton Williams Abrams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine
The world runs on individuals pursuing their selfish interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus ... Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way.

The only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about … the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worst off is exactly the kind of societies that have departed from that.

So … the record of history is absolutely crystal clear …. that there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people, that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system
…. Milton Friedman
19 posted on 09/14/2015 7:36:06 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hydrazine

Yes Capitalism is subject to cronyism, corruption, and manipulation; I’d like to know what system is better and not subject to the same weaknesses, we the people can have at least some control by instituting personal responsibility through caveat emptor.

The same is true of our Republic it has the same weaknesses but there is no better system, we the people need to be responsible for it, we the people have failed to protect, promote and defend our Constitutional Free Republic and its accompanying Capitalism.


20 posted on 09/14/2015 7:45:12 AM PDT by PoloSec ( Believe the Gospel: how that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson