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Space/Science » in reply to re: Let's try this: Western-style capitalist nations have done more for humanity than the rest of the world put together.

Capitalism and democracy
Tom Brosz — (archived)

Capitalism is not a primary virtue. Neither is democracy--even less so.

The primary principle around which society should be organized--in whatever manner--is the recognition of the right of the individual to his own life, and by extension, to the product of his own effort.

Property rights, intellectual rights, and free enterprise (the right of producers to freely trade without force or fraud) are all economic consequences of this.

Governments exist to protect these rights, and keep force and fraud out of relations between citizens. The extension to this concept is (basically) a military, police, and court system.

Democracy is simply a way to allow citizens input into their government. In point of fact, democracy has to be superceded by a constitution, or some other way of restricting the capability of people to vote others out of their rights. A pure democracy, unrestrained by such rules ("these are the things that are NOT subject to majority rule") soon collapses into chaos or tyranny.

Theoretically I suppose it would be possible to have a constitutional society that did not have elections (some form of monarchy perhaps) where the king and all the other rulers were subjected to restrictions on their power. But in practice, the people in such a society had better keep their powder dry. Democratic systems work better, and are more appealing to the citizens.

The above is a simplification, with more details involved, but the basics really are that simple, and most policies can be analyzed in this light.

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