Capitalism

In an article about King Leopold II's of Belgium murder of millions of Congolese the author "talked about, what capitalism did to Africa, [and] all the privileges that rich white people gained from the Congolese genocide.

This article of course was racist suggesting that whites murder blacks. The truth is people murder people. If you put people in a position of power over other people abuse will occur because power corrupts. People were not designed to rule over each other.

Power to rule over your neighbor leads to abuse of power, black, white, red, yellow or green makes no difference. Evil comes in all colors, shapes and nationalities. Some systems lend themselves to that abuse. The ones that centralize power

Besides the race distortion in the article there was another insidious misconception hidden in it about "capitalism". "Capitalism has been getting a bad rap as if it is the cause of world problems. Capitalism is a social system based on the principle of individual rights. Politically, it is the system of laissez-faire (freedom). Legally it is a system of objective laws (rule of law as opposed to rule of man). Economically, when such freedom is applied to the sphere of production its’ result is the free-market."

"Capitalism is an economic system in which capital assets are privately owned and goods and services are produced for profit in a market economy."

The United States has been moving away from Capitalism as an economic system since the institution of the Federal Reserve and abandoning it with its pursuit of socialism to provide benefits, especially in a bankrupt economy and government borrowing.

There are good capitalists and bad capitalists, just like there are good and bad blacks and whites etc. And when it comes to mass murder socialists like Stalin and the Chinese communists win the world prize for most dead, even out doing the socialist Hitler.

So where and why did capitalism start getting a bad name?

"When I say "capitalism," I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism—with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church." Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness.

Natural law allows one to halt or detain or even restrain someone for the violation of rights inherit in someone else. It does not allow you to punish, fine or regulate pre-crime.

In order to license and regulate natural activities where no rights are violate one needs a contractual society or legal system. Legal systems have legal regulations of activities. They do not regulate rights but privileges. These privileges are created by contract. Or in other words contract make the law.

Economy is a product of the people. In a free society the possession of property, rights and the means of production is in the hands of the people not in the hands of the state.If the state can control the economy the people are not free.

What of the state and church? The Church is a religious institution and religion is how we "perform our duty to God and our fellow man". If the state is caring for the people and providing for the needy of society then there is no separation of Church and state. The state is doing the work of the Church.

More detail on the word "capitalism".

Footnotes

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