A Quick Thought On The Left, Capitalism, And Morality

I want to be clear about a component of truly free enterprise (aka capitalism and I use the terms interchangeably). It requires morality. That is exactly what Adam Smith explained in his precursor to “Wealth of Nations”, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”.

I consider that he focused on the moral aspect first before expounding on his economic theories, extremely significant.

The left says that capitalism is “late stage” and is failing, and I tend to agree with them in situations where it is clear the motivation for profit is clearly immoral.

if it is, one must ask why.

Capitalism fails when it ceases to be moral – and remind me which side of the aisle rejects traditional morality for secular humanism and allegedly “pure logic”? If you think people can’t reason themselves into fraud and crime, look around because examples abound. The evidence other amoral or immoral people are excusing and protecting the perpetrating miscreants is also legion.

The commonality in this failure is a sort of legally enforced morality, one that is subject to all sorts of manipulation to make an offense not a offense.

The left loves to say that “unrestrained capitalism” features harm to people, but the opposite is true. Efforts to restrain it distort markets, sully them, and make them into just another confidence scam run by fraudsters.

Unrestrained free enterprise is based on the three legs of a stool, one being voluntary trade, the profit motive, and last, but not least, moral sentiments. The last is what makes capitalism fair. Take out any one of the three, and it will fail.

The left knows that.

That’s why they have been gnawing at the morality leg for a hundred years.