By the way, your unqualified statement about capitalism being non-coercive is quite…amusing. Capitalism’s natural tendency outside of regulation is to create a society where a very large class of poor people and a very small class of very rich people exist. American Capitalism has worked since the late 1930’s precisely BECAUSE of regulation to ensure that it works for everyone. Ever hear of the Gilded Age and the Great Depression? Those are the outcomes of unregulated capitalism.
You could not be more incorrect. Capitalism has universally lowered the price of goods so that things which were once “luxury” can now be afforded by a commoner. If everyone was dirt poor, then who would buy all the goods?
Now, I’ll address your Great Depression point. This is a common myth, and it is horribly common. The Great Depression was not caused by Capitalism, but rather by the Federal Reserve, which is according to Woods a non-market institution. America’s Great Depression by Murray Rothbard is a good book on the matter.
This problem was exacerbated by Hoover, and then FDR. Hoover was not a do nothing president like most people claim, he was exactly the opposite. An FDR aide even went so far as to say that the New Deal was almost entirely based on Hoover’s intervention, which included requiring businesses to keep wages the same (immoral in and of itself because it is coercive) during a time in which prices were decreasing steadily. This made it hard for businesses to hire people. result: mass unemployment. Hoover also meddled in the agriculture industry by raising prices so that a small number of farmers could benefit while the rest of America was forced to pay exorbitant prices. Furthermore, Hoover enacted gross protectionist tariffs. raising tariffs an average of 59% for more than 25,000 items. The result was that other countries essentially refused to trade with America. American car sales dropped 90% in Italy. Almost universally in Europe tariffs on American goods were raised. Taxes were raised as well. This is never good for the economy.
FDR made bad worse. Aside from using illegal methods to enact change, he was totally ignorant of economics. FDR artificially raised prices by creating food shortages. Six million pigs were slaughtered and 10 million acres of cotton were destroyed. Later on Agriculture Adjustment Act found that America was not producing even the minimum amount of food to subsist. I wonder why?
Jim Powell said of FDR " [farmers] actually found themselves worse off because FDR’s National Recovery Administration had been even more successful in forcing up the prices that consumers, including farmers had to pay for manufactured goods. economists Vedder and Gallaway estimate that 1.2 million were unemployed by 1938 because of the increased labor costs relating to Social Security. Public works programs were flawed too, because they just destroyed private jobs, and made new ones, all the while using billions of dollars to establish this new sector. This has been found by economists Wallis and Benjamin. When challenged by the Supreme Court on constitutionality of these methods, he stacked the court with 7 new justices, after resignations, retirements and deaths. Now, with FDR friendly judges, in 1942 Wickward v. Filburn decided that " a farmer growing wheat for his own use on his own property fell under the heading of ‘interstate commerce". This is such an abhorrent and deliberate misinterpretation of the Commerce Clause I don’t have to delve into it. What saved America from the Depression was a return to normal after WW2, which was in itself bad for the economy. More on this in Tom Woods’ book “The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History”.
The economy is always much better when a president who has no legal right to meddle in it does not. Calvin Coolidge knew this. in 1920 there was a small depression. solution? Cut taxes. soon after, the economy was hopping. does “Roaring Twenties” ring a bell?
further reading:
amazon.com/FDRs-Folly-Roosevelt-Prolonged-Depression/dp/0761501657/sr=1-1/qid=1165601632/lewrockwell
lewrockwell.com/orig4/powell-jim1.html
lewrockwell.com/orig4/powell-jim2.html
lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster39.html
cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3329
cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3357
“The Great Contraction” by Nobel Prize winning Milton Friedman
a distinction between Corporatism and Capitalism needs to be made:
lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory64.html
The New Deal has long been touted as “saving capitalism from itself” but given some research, I’ve found quite the opposite of what I once believed.
