capitalism and friedman
all forms of economy are decided and enforced by the state. capitalism is strictly enforced by the united states and china, just as socialism was enforced by the soviets. an individual is not free to choose which style of economy they would like to use for themselves.
no intelligent person can deny the fact that china is a capitalism and not a communism. it is blossoming into an economic powerhouse, a course set in motion decades ago by deng xiaoping. it is projected to overtake the united states in several macro-economic benchmarks in the not too distant future, eventually surpassing the united states in all benchmarks in a few decades. it is currently the 4th largest economy in the world, behind the united states, japan and germany.
it's economy is larger than britain and france. both britain and france allow their citizens to vote in elections and allow freedom of speech and freedom of the press. britain and france have a special place in history as being the birthplaces of modern capitalism and democracy. these states have far less power and ability to dictate the behavior of their populace than china. the citizens of these 2 countries could be said to be more "free" than their chinese counterparts, yet their capitalist economies are smaller than china's.
the title for milton freiedman's best know book is "capitalism and freedom". he believed that capitalism and freedom were one and the same, inseparable. but, upon a simple examination of the title itself, we see that capitalism and freedom are 2 separate words. they are 2 very different things. capitalism is not freedom, it is capitalism and capitalism is not freedom. capitalism is a method of economy - a theory, as tangible an object as any theory gets. freedom is utterly intangible. it is relative to the individual, with as many ideas of what it is as there are people. at the time he wrote the book, china and the soviet union were exercising absolute state authority over every aspect of the lives of their citizens. there were at the time essentially only 2 options for the world's nations - communism, where the state dictates policy and capitalism, where the market dictates policy. many nations had a balance between the two ideals. the nations that did were mostly transparent democracies and gave their citizens a fair amount of freedom outside the marketplace.
early on in his book, mr. friedman approaches the possibility of free market capitalism existing in a state that simultaneously exercises full state control over it's populace. he gives a few examples - nazi germany, fascist italy and spain and japan, but doesn't explain any facts or theory beyond these examples in any depth, as in the age of post war america, when the lectures were being given that would eventually become the book, there had never been a country like contemporary china. a country both free market and totalitarian on such a colossal scale that it is poised to become ruler of the world, a country with 20% of the world's population that allows it's constituents the right to choose which television or automobile to buy, but does not allow the right to question any decisions and/or actions the ruling party makes, for fear of possibly being dragged away and never being seen again.
the very existence of contemporary china proves the theory of capitalism as emancipator is incorrect. capitalism does indeed exist separate from what he perceived to be "freedom." according to his definition of freedom, china is not free. not in the slightest.
even in the united states you can see evidence of that his theory is incorrect. a large part of the electorate is viewed by the vast majority of americans as corrupt and yet the voting public does nothing, instead taking out increasing lines of credit to purchase items in the free marketplace. rights guaranteed by the documents that gave birth to the nation have been taken away, rights that at the time the book was written were thought to be untouchable, and the recipients of those rights do nothing but exercise their right to the marketplace.
milton friedman wasn't ghandi, heidegger, corbusier, jesus or martin luther he was someone with a theory about liberation. phrenology was a theory too.
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