A Moral Case for Capitalism

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OK, we’re told, so maybe capitalism is efficient. Maybe it generates more wealth than other systems.

But what about values? What about things that can’t be measured in cash? Things like kindness and loyalty and integrity.

Well, let me say something that you won’t hear very often. Let me make the moral case for capitalism.

Let’s go back nearly 12,000 years, to the moment when one of our ancestors made a world-changing discovery.

It turned out that if you left seeds in fertile soil, plants would grow from them. Instead of having to forage, you could produce your own grains or fruits where you wanted.

But it didn’t take long for someone to make the next discovery. Rather than spending all year tending to your own crops, you could wait for your neighbor to bring in his harvest and then steal it.

And then came the truly diabolical discovery.

If you wanted to maximize the ratio of effort to outcome, you could organize a gang of thugs, and seize not only your neighbor’s harvest but everyone’s harvest, regularizing your plunder through tithes, tolls, and taxes.

And thus it continued until, well… until roughly the end of the 17th century and the birth of modern liberal capitalism. Sure, there were premonitions before then, little tremors of freedom. But almost everyone on the planet still lived in servitude and penury.

Every previous society was based on systematized oppression. Ruling elites would use the institutions of the state to loot its resources, and then rig the