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So the market is an 'invisible hand' but any other form of centralised planning, that you yourself can't name or suggest isn't?

• the_af 12y ago
  By definition the invisible hand metaphor stands opposite to any kind of centralized planning. But you're nitpicking. The central of my comment is that you absolutely cannot assert that Capitalism is "objectively" better than every other system. Objectively better at what? By whose objective measurements?
  • pas 12y ago
    It seems to be better in terms of efficiency. After all, it optimizes for profit, costs are a given for every market participant (in a free market), just as profits are bounded, so the most efficient gains more market share at each "time slice". (Sure, sometimes this efficiency is observable only in marketing, lobbying or in other exploitative mechanisms.)
    • the_af 12y ago
      I'm willing to concede it optimizes for profit (of some people, of course). So maybe Capitalism is "more efficient" at this than other competing systems, but does this make Capitalism objectively better as a system? Maybe if profit-making is the main metric. I remain unconvinced.