Even Adam Smith, main architect of free market capitalism, said it couldn’t exist outside an ethical context. He never foresaw capitalism untied to any govt regulation. Capitalism will reclaim an ethical & moral center or a younger generation of Americans will replace it entirely

Apr 7, 2020 · 4:03 PM UTC

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FDR said “I’m not destroying capitalism. I’m saving it.” You can’t sustain a free market when it becomes unfree for the majority of people. You can’t be a capitalist when you have no access to capital! Too many Americans are locked out of the party; it’s immoral & unsustainable.
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Our problem among other things is that there’s no force with major political leverage willing to question the fundamental premise on which the system operates. That used to be the Democratic Party and hopefully it will be again. Right now it’s only lone voices; that’s not enough
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Replying to @marwilliamson
Adam was not the "main architect of free market capitalism", it did not exist in his day. The word capitalism didn't even exist in his day.
Replying to @marwilliamson
The worker ownership of the $20 billion a year Mondragon Cooperative of the Basque in Spain is a working model of a better way to work: worker ownership. Then, companies could almost be people. Mondragon owns its own bank and has a Collage which trains its workers. Good community
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Replying to @marwilliamson
This is why capitalism needs a moral society . This has historically been a Christian consensus, or at least its governing forms - contract law, non corruption in law and business, checks to abuse of power, saving money, investing, honest hard work, giving to charity, etc.
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Replying to @marwilliamson @daveanthony
This is a great article on that ft.com/content/6795a1a0-7476…
Replying to @marwilliamson
We are losing this battle Marianne. Widespread climate catastrophe and mass species extinctions will come before the greedy, the selfish, the money lovers change their ways. You can't "fix" capatalism in the U.S. alone, it will need a global effort
Replying to @marwilliamson
Capitalism never had an ethical and moral center. It can't have that. The fundamental principle of capitalism is "get all you can, every man for himself, and to hell with the commons." Which, incidentally, is why 1/
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Replying to @marwilliamson
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Replying to @marwilliamson
Thank you Marianne! So many people miss this from Wealth Of Nationa. They only remember laissez faire and ignore that a significant portion of his work is devoted to regulation.
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Replying to @marwilliamson
Architect is the wrong word, but revealing of a basic error in your worldview. Capitalism is not a designed system. It's a description of the system that arises when economic actors are free to order their affairs through free exchange. It is the economics of liberty 1/2
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Replying to @marwilliamson
You have it exactly backwards. Corporatism is not capitalism. And when you have more regulation you have more exploitation
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