4 ms·

Capitalism is the most free of all, from there the more you turn left the more authoritarian it gets.

• geofft 9y ago
  Why is democracy not the most free of all? Let one person have one vote - not one dollar have one vote.
  • merinowool 9y ago
    It is not, as one could say it is a tyranny of majority...
  • nybble41 9y ago
    To expand on what merinowool said: Under capitalism you are free to do whatever you want with your own property provided you extend the same courtesy to others, and don't interfere either their use of their property. It is easy to see that this is an optimum balance: any more freedom than that would necessarily come at someone else's expense. This is sufficient on its own to say that any other system must be less free than capitalism. "Democracy" comes in many forms. If a particular implementation of democracy includes strong (effectively absolute) protection for the rights of the minority, including property rights, then it becomes a special case of capitalism where interested people voluntarily choose to address issues of common concern through voting. One example of such a system is a co-op; no one is forced to participate, but those who do become members have equal representation with respect to the disposition of the co-op's common property. If respect for the minority's rights is subject to majority vote, however, then things which one would be free to do under capitalism—by definition involving only one's own property and that of others who voluntarily choose to participate—become restricted to suit the will of the majority, which plainly makes one less free.
    • merinowool 9y ago
      I couldn't put it any better. Thanks!