Wednesday, April 3, 2019

QUORA: ‘Why has modern capitalism risen in the West?’

QUORA **: ‘Why has modern capitalism risen in the West?

I posted this answer:

I take “modern capitalism” to mean as an organized political/economic system. There have been periods in history that featured some level of capitalistic economic freedom. But the principles of capitalism*  were not fully articulated until recent times.

As to the question, “risen” is a proper description. Unlike other social systems, which were statist in one form or another, capitalism was not imposed from the top down. It arose as a natural consequence of a free society based on Western Enlightenment principles of individual rights, including property rights; limited rights-protecting government; free markets; and the rule of objective law applied equally to all. Put simply, capitalism emerged from the grassroots after the “common man” was liberated from top-down control by political rulers.  

Of course, capitalism has not been fully or consistently implemented anywhere. It has been bogged down by various degrees of statism inherited from the past. Capitalism has also been denied, in part or in whole, to large segments of the population, such as black slaves in the American South. But enough capitalism has been established to give us a conclusive demonstration of its practicality and morality, as observe the explosion of prosperity and technological and social progress we’ve enjoyed over the past 2 to 3 centuries.

Here is a sampling of suggested reading to clarify understanding. Clarity is especially important today given the open socialist rebellion against Americanism now taking shape on the American Left:




* [NOTE: “Capitalism” is in my view not the ideal name for this social organization, because it implies only the field of economics and commerce, and government favoritism toward business, which full laissez-faire capitalism most emphatically is not. A better name would be Americanism because of the Declaration of Independence, which essentializes, in highly essentialized form, the basic political principles of a fully free, capitalist society. The most relevant part reads:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . .

The American Founding Fathers never even used the term “capitalism,” which came into common usage in the 19th Century. Let me also emphasize that I advocate the term “Americanism” not in a jingoistic sense but in a broad philosophical sense, meaning pertaining to all human beings everywhere.]

Related Reading:










** [Quora is a social media website founded by two former Facebook employees. According to Wikipedia:

Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by its community of users. The company was founded in June 2009, and the website was made available to the public on June 21, 2010.[3]Quora aggregates questions and answers to topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users' answers.[4]

[You can also reply to other users’ answers.]

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