When Measured by Real World Outcomes, Capitalism Delivers
April 14th 2021, 11:47 am
If we actually examine the record of markets versus socialist regimes, we find that markets perform much better in terms of income growth, environmental quality, and the empowerment of women
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He is the editor of
Current Affairs and is the author of
Why You Should Be a Socialist (All Points Books, 2019). He’s made quite a lucrative career out of pushing for socialism. More specifically, he argues that socialism outperforms markets by nearly every measure, most especially including environmental preservation, income growth, and female empowerment. Yet, if we actually examine the record of markets versus socialist regimes, we find that markets perform much better. Here are a few examples.
When administrations change, so do the government’s priorities. The Trump administration, like most Republican administrations, emphasized economic growth as a means by which American workers, especially blue‐collar and unskilled laborers, could see an increase in their income and, consequently, their standard of living. To that end, the last administration pursued deregulation and corporate‐tax reform. The Biden administration, by contrast, has chosen to put a renewed emphasis on tackling income inequality a common theme in the Obama years. To that end, the new administration hopes to increase corporate and personal income taxes as well as legislate a higher federal minimum hourly wage. The question is: Does income inequality matter? And if so, why?
The Books We Read in 2020 SHARE
The Wall Street Journal asked people of some prominence to name the best books they read in 2020. So I asked my colleagues. Honestly, I like this list better. Of course, we all recommend the books Cato published this year. But we read more widely, and here are some of our favorites:
The Little House By Virginia Lee Burton - This children s story tracks our heroine a well-built, 19th-century country home enjoying the stars at night and the changing seasons as modern urban life creeps closer, surrounds her, and takes her land, her enjoyment of nature, and everything else. After skyscrapers have expropriated every inch of her once-peaceful hillside, a family finds the little pink house “sad and lonely” and, in contempt of modern permitting and historical preservation laws, manages to quickly load her onto a truck and return with her to the countryside. Perfect for ages 1-9.