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Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 15 of Eamonn Butler’s excellent 2018 monograph, An Introduction to Capitalism [2] (original emphasis):

[Capitalism] is a highly moral system too. The human relationships in capitalism are not forced but voluntary. People invest, create, supply, buy and sell things as they choose. No government ordains their actions: the decisions are theirs. Indeed, the only role for the power wielded by the state is to ensure that individuals are not forced – or robbed, or defrauded, or otherwise violated. Capitalism is not based on commands, but on the rule of law in which general rules (such as honest dealing, honouring contracts and shunning violence) apply to everyone – including the government authorities.

DBx: Indeed so. Markets operate by mutual consent. The state operates by issuing commands. The former is oh-so-bourgeois and thus strikes many people as being petty, while the latter strikes many people as being glorious and grand. Many people have matters exactly backwards.

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