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To: justshutupandtakeit
Short definition of Mercantilism = government policies to maximize the quantity of precious metals in a nation. Maybe that will help clear up your misunderstanding of the term.

Considering that it is itself a severe truncation of a complex economic theory that effectively neglects the majority of that theory, and considering that you have not demonstrated any misunderstanding of mercantilism except for your own, I think not.

None of the things you list as "anti-capitalist" are so.

Capitalism, in its pure and defined form, is directly opposed to managerial government intervention within the economy. That is a fact of economic definition whether you like it or not. Taking something that is not capitalist and calling it capitalist does not make it so. And since everything I listed as anti-capitalist is an act of managerial government intervention within the economy, they cannot be capitalist by definition.

Taxes certainly aren't.

Excessive taxes that are collected for purposes other than the basic functions of a capitalist state, i.e. defending the shores and keeping the courts open, indisputably are. They are managerial interventions into the economy on two levels: First they remove excessive ammounts of wealth from the private sector so as to distort and divert what that wealth would have been employed to in the absence of excessive taxation. Secondly they are used to finance government expenditures and/or transfer payments that intervene into the economy by their own right.

Nor are tariffs

Revenue tariffs? generally no as long as they are low, reasonable, and not spent on further managerial economic intervention. Protectionist tariffs? Yes. They are anti-capitalist by definition as they directly seek to manage the economy in a different way than would happen in their absence and indirectly manage it by redistributing wealth via the consumer surplus to selected beneficiary producers.

having been used by EVERY capitalist country.

Capitalist-leaning countries do not define a system of economic capitalism and thus are not evidence, in their employment of policy, of what capitalism is. If the opposite were so, capitalism could be said to include a massive welfare state since the US and many european countries that call themselves capitalist by name all have massive welfare states. Not that you would object to such an absurdity...

Certainly centralized monetary policies aren't since they have been and are used by EVERY capitalist country.

Same fallacy as above. Try again.

Clearly internal improvements aren't since they have been used by EVERY capitalist country.

Same fallacy as above. Try again.

Here is a short definition of capitalism which might clear up your confusion

You post without need considering that, once again, short definitions cannot even hope to accomodate the intricacies of an economic theory that consumes volumes of text in even its most simple form and in light of the fact that, once again, the only confusion about capitalism that has been demonstrated on this thread to date originates from your own keyboard.

Hamilton's policies (in sharp contrast to his enemies) were proposed to Maximize those economic activities for his fellow Americans.

He may have claimed that and you may claim it to your heart's content, but that does not make it so. Take protectionist tariffs for example. You or Alex or the AFL-CIO may claim that they "mazimize economic activities for Americans" or some other such nonsense, but regardless of what you may think or believe, it is a mathematical certainty that they do not by way of the inescapable dead weight losses that accompany protectionist policies. In simpler terms for someone of your simple mindset, that means that protectionist tariffs operate at a net loss for the general welfare of a nation when compared to the alternative, free trade.

Now he is a direct "heir" to mercantilists?

Well, he advocated an economic agenda with heavy mercantilist elements. So yes.

You might note in your attempt to slander Hamilton with Keynes you ignore what Keynes actually said while accepting what those who use his name say he said.

Don't tell me - you're a keynesian too! Gee, fake-it. When it comes to idolizing left wing wackos you're batting 1.000!

I doubt you have actually read Keynes great work, The General Theory of employment,interest and money or you would realize that Keynes never proposed the policies that his successors employ in his name.

Evidently you know very little of Keynes yourself, or you would know that he spent much of his lifetime advising governments and advocating the very same policies that his followers still push to this day. Much of that work is descriptive without much controversy.

...and the remainder is the foundation for the very same modern left wing anti-capitalist bullsh*t that people like you endorse, praise, and advocate while simultaneously trying to pass it off as "capitalism" by calling it that.

People like Keynes and Roosevelt were desperate to save the capitalist system which in both their countries were under great pressure from the Socialists and Communists because of the inability to comprehend and deal with the economic collapse.

Nonsense. Roosevelt and Keynes simply sought, and in part achieved, a different means to the same end. Heck, Roosevelt himself threw off the few capitalists and conservatives that could help him and surrounded himself with marxists, socialists, communists, and other left wing freaks of the highest order.

295 posted on 07/25/2003 4:56:00 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
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To: GOPcapitalist
I posted the definition from an economics dictionary but, like most objective definitions, it does not fit with your subjective and distorted view so you ignore it. The short definition (of my devising) is the essence of the theory and is sufficient to show that your claim about Hamilton's policy is false.

There is no "pure and defined form" of capitalism. I also posted the definition for that term which, of course, you also ignore as you do all other inconvenient facts. You can't quite grasp the fact that economics is always controlled by politics. Always was and always will be. It is unavoidable.

There is no "capitalist state" the two elements of that term are incompatible. Now it is obviously true that a government can impact an economy negatively as well as positively. Hamilton knew how to do it positively and his policies were directly responsible for the nation's explosive growth. Capitalism's greatest economy grew with his assistance only to find the deceitful, and mendacious attacking him for being insufficiently capitalist. What a joke.

Revenue tariffs were exactly what Hamilton proposed.

"Capitalist-leaning" states are all we have. It will be a cold day in hell before I pretend that reality is best disposed of and we should follow the obscure theories of GOPcrapitalist who devotes and inordinate amount of time supported the greatest attack on capitalism ever to be launched prior to 1917.

Facts are not fallacies.

Uh, definitions are by nature short. And I will not accept nay-sayers nebulous, non-definitions versus the actual experience of capitalist societies.

Hamilton's tariffs were, in the main, revenue tariffs not protective. It is also false to claim his Reports were proposals. He outlined options and the results of the various options for Congress to consider. Such realities are, of course, ignored by you in your mendacious attempt to distort but are still true. Much like your pretense he called for a King at the CC when even Madison's notes show that such a statement is a Lie.

Keynes was pretty such a classical economist attempting to explain failures in the theory brought to light by the Depression. While it is certainly hard to go wrong admiring what you loathe, I have no affinity to Keynes other than admiring his literary style. He was a great writer. Unlike most of his critics on FR I have ACTUALLY READ some of his works, including his landmark book. But I would never suggest you weigh down your collection of lies, distortions and misinformation with actual knowledge, you are much too valuable as a bad example.

Keynes, like all world-class economists, did a lot of work for governments (do you condemn Ricardo, Mill, Fisher, and Marshall for similiar activity?) some of which were accepted and some of which, such as that wrt to the WWI Peace, were ignored much to the detriment of the world. It is too bad the governments did not listen to his advice given in The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Millions of lives may well have been saved. His other advice was not new and had been implemented many times prior to his stating it.

LIke most of your comments those about FDR are caricatures with little real relation to reality. I would be stunned if they were otherwise.
408 posted on 07/27/2003 12:49:28 PM PDT by justshutupandtakeit (RATS will use any means to denigrate George Bush's Victory.)
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