Celebrate Capitalism!

The Bernstein Declaration on the Principles and Possibilities of Capitalism

Capitalism is the only system based on the recognition that each individual owns his life. Capitalism is the only social system in which individuals are free to pursue their rational self-interest, to own property and to profit from their actions.

It entrenches individual rights, limited Constitutional government, and political, intellectual and economic freedom.

The More Capitalist a Culture ...

The Greater its Freedom and Prosperity!

That is the verdict of history. In just two short centuries, capitalism has lifted men's living standards to heights undreamed of in the pre-capitalist era.

Often forgotten today is that Western Europe, prior to the capitalist revolution of the late Eighteenth Century, suffering under the political yoke of the feudal aristocracy, was the equivalent of a Third World country - wracked by famine, recurrent plague, and the most unspeakable poverty. But no longer.

When was the last time a famine occurred in any capitalist nation - whether in Western Europe, North America or Asia? The United States has never suffered a famine in its history.

Capitalism has created abundance unmatched in human history, enabling hundreds of millions to live better today than all the kings of yesterday.

Less Capitalism Means More Human Misery!

But the non capitalist nations - the fascist, socialist, military or theocratic dictatorships - enslave their own citizens and subsist in abysmal squalor. In many African countries the living standard is one or two hundred dollars per year.

In North Korea, they starve to death by the tens of thousands. In Cuba, they drown trying to swim to freedom in the United States.

Millions of oppressed people around the globe yearn to emigrate to the Free World. But who in the capitalist nations seeks to emigrate to Cambodia?

What Makes Capitalism's Astounding Success Possible?

What principles explain the fact that mankind's greatest inventions and works of art - his most life-giving material and spiritual advances - the steam engine, the cinema, the telegraph, the telephone, the electric light, the novel, the automobile, the symphony, the airplane, the radio, the television, the personal computer, the Internet and countless medical cures - were created under capitalism?

The Simple Answer Is:

Freedom!

When men are free to pursue their rational self-interest, when they are free to use their minds in the quest to profit and better their lives, they are magnificently productive.

Continue to the Second Part of Celebrate Capitalism