In Defence of Capitalism: Consumption is good for you and me GUEST ESSAY In his 2015 encyclical “Laudato si”, a blazing indictment of capitalism, Pope Francis proclaimed: “Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Compulsive consumerism is one example of how the techno-economic paradigm affects individuals”. [...]
In defence of capitalism: Why greed can be good for consumers GUEST OPINION In the seventh of an eight-part series, sociologist and author Dr Rainer Zitelmann pulls apart the arguments against free markets. This week, he takes on the idea that capitalism uniquely creates greed and selfishness The British economist Paul Collier has put together a series of proposals on how capitalism should be ‘reformed.’ He criticizes the [...]
In Defence of Capitalism: Why Nokia and MySpace lost their monopolies OUR EIGHT-PART SERIES Each week, Dr Rainer Zitelmann mythbusts the arguments against capitalism. This week, it’s the idea that capitalism creates monopolies – but looking at Nokia and MySpace amongst others suggests otherwise In an international survey on popular perceptions of capitalism, which I commissioned for the book In Defence of Capitalism, one of the main criticisms levelled [...]
In defence of capitalism: Does money corrupt politics? March 29, 2023 In the fifth of an eight-part series, Dr Rainer Zitelmann – the author of the new book In Defence of Capitalism – argues that free markets, capitalism and money make for fairer elections and freer democracies, not the other way round The American intellectual Noam Chomsky, one of the most popular critics of capitalism, writes [...]
Is this crisis capitalism’s fault? No. And neither was the last one March 23, 2023 In the fourth of an eight part series, Dr Rainer Zitelmann mythbusts the arguments against free markets. Today, it’s “Capitalism repeatedly leads to new economic and financial crises” For as long as there have been anti-capitalists, they have been anticipating the great crisis that would bring about the final, irreversible collapse of capitalism. Karl Marx [...]
What do Brits think of capitalism? Not much, it seems March 18, 2023 One of the most surprising findings of an international survey conducted on attitudes towards capitalism for the book In Defence of Capitalism is that the British – in the motherland of capitalism – are far more critical of capitalism than might be expected. Only in 12 countries are attitudes towards capitalism more negative than in [...]
In defence of capitalism: How free markets can help us go green March 15, 2023 For more than 20 years, researchers at Yale University have been publishing the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which ranks countries according to their environmental health and ecosystem vitality. A comparison can be made between the EPI and the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, which has been measuring economic freedom around the globe since 1995. [...]
UK must turn around the ship of state towards economic freedom March 12, 2023 Dr Rainer Zitelmann is a historian and sociologist. In this guest essay, he argues the UK is slipping down the list of free countries in a new global index Last year, the UK received its worst rating in the Index of Economic Freedom since 1995, when the index was first calculated. This year’s rating is [...]
In Defence of Capitalism: How free markets are lifting people out of poverty March 8, 2023 In the second of an eight part series, the historian and sociologist Dr Rainer Zitelmann writes for City A.M. in defence of capitalism, arguing that freer markets are usually the answer to society’s problems, not the cause. Each week he will ‘myth-bust’ the common complaints about capitalism – and this week, it’s that capitalism is responsible [...]
In Defence of Capitalism: Why free markets can keep driving billions out of hunger and poverty March 1, 2023 In the first of an eight part series, the historian and sociologist Dr Rainer Zitelmann writes for City A.M. in defence of capitalism, arguing that freer markets are usually the answer to society’s problems, not the cause. Each week he will ‘myth-bust’ the common complaints about capitalism – and this week, it’s that capitalism is [...]
