Rejoinder to Ben Burgis: The Case for Laissez-Faire Capitalism

“According to that tried and true statement, ‘wealthier is healthier.’ Free enterprise leads to greater wealth and, thus, to greater health and longevity, ceteris paribus.”

I am grateful to Merion West for its publication of Ben Burgis’s recent article making the case for democratic socialism. It gives me the opportunity, once again, to bash socialism. I shall consider, and refute, this author’s claim that socialism is better, more just, leads to greater prosperity, etc. by quoting from his essay and then indicating his errors.

Consider the following statement of his:

“I’m a democratic socialist. That means the core of my politics is about seeking to overcome the domination of society by wealthy interests. I want to empower the working class.”

Under pure laissez-faire capitalism, the system I defend against socialism, there is no force or fraud. Those are crimes. How is it supposed that the “wealthy interests” gain their station in the first place? There is one possibility—and only one possibility: They make an offer that the recipient of the offer “cannot refuse.” Why cannot he refuse? This has nothing to do with The Godfather. He cannot refuse because it is not in his best interest to refuse. For example, suppose we start off under a system of perfect financial equality. All people in the society have the same amount of money. They are all independent entrepreneurs, each one working solely for himself. Each is as productive as every other person. However, A saves part of his funds and B does not. A then offers B an employment contract. “Come work for me,” says the former to the latter, “and I will pay you $X.” $X is more than B can earn for himself on his own, so he agrees.