… is from page 195 of the 1962 Gateway edition of University of Georgia economist David McCord Wright’s unfortunately forgotten 1951 book, Capitalism:
The attitude toward capitalism taken in this book is simply that, as long as most people accept its basic requirements, it is on balance the most workable method of getting continued growth, change, opportunity, and democracy in a relatively peaceful manner. We are not trying to maintain that the system is perfect….
DBx: Yes. And no requirement is more basic to capitalism – or, indeed, to any sort of economy that people expect will generate high and rising standards of living for as many people as possible – than that production be guided by the desires of income earners who, as consumers, spend their own (and only their own) money as they choose. To the extent that people as consumers are obstructed in exercising their right to spend their money in whatever peaceful ways they choose, the economy wastes resources and fails to produce as much as possible. This conclusion isn’t diluted by the fact that a common reason for obstructing people’s right to spend their money as they choose is to stimulate production.
