The Morality of Capitalism: What Your Professors Won't Tell You [Paperback]

Tom G. Palmer (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0898031702 | ISBN-13: 978-0898031706 | Edition: 1St Edition

The second in the "What Your Professors Won't Tell You" series of essays on political economy, this collection includes thirteen essays. Authors include Nobel Prize winners Mario Vargas Llosa and Vernon Smith, Whole Foods Market CEO and founder John Mackey, and scholars from across the globe.

This book series is a project of the campus organization Students for Liberty and is intended to "offer the other side of the debate, the side that is rarely acknowledged to exist" in college courses on economics and political science. Students are encouraged to "read the best criticisms of free market capitalism ... Marx, Sombart, Rawls, Sandel" and then "wrestle with the arguments offered in this book, think about them, and make up your own mind."

The first book in this series The Economics of Freedom: Selected Works of Frederic Bastiat, includes a foreword by Nobel Prize economist F.A. Hayek.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Clear, concise, and persuasive rarely-heard arguments in favor of free market capitalism

Prominent essayists, including two Nobel Prize winners and a major American corporate chief executive.

Stimulating contributions from writers in China, Africa, Russia, Latin America, American universities and think tanks.

The "forbidden fruit" series subtitle has proved to be effective in attracting readers at book fairs and on college campuses.

Students for Liberty and the Atlas Economic Research Institute are conducting an internet promotional campaigns through libertarian networks. For example: http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/morality-capitalism

About the Author

Tom Palmer, vice-president of the Atlas Foundation is a senior fellow of the Cato Institute. Educated at St. John's College and Catholic University, he earned his doctorate in politics at Oxford University. His writing is published in scholarly and popular journals, including Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and books by leading academic presses.

Product Details

• Paperback: 129 pages
• Publisher: Jameson Books, Inc.; 1St Edition edition (October 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898031702
• ISBN-13: 978-0898031706
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Comparative

More About the Author

Libertarian scholar and activist Tom G. Palmer has carried the ideas of liberty to some of the most oppressed and dangerous parts of the planet. He smuggled books, photocopiers, and faxes into the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations and has taught and lectured in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other countries. He earned his B.A. in liberal arts from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, his M.A. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, and his D.Phil. in politics from Oxford University. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, in Washington, D.C., where he was previously vice president for international programs, and is vice president for international programs, where he directs platforms and active programs of book publishing, summer schools, and policy conferences in 15 languages. He serves on the boards of a number of organizations and is active in several charitable groups.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent essays, concise viewpoint, required reading October 4, 2011

By Keith Walters

Format:Paperback

Just received this brief book from Atlas Economic Research Foundation and Students For Liberty along with a request to donate. The book is targeted at college age students to help combat the socialist bias in most university cultures. I thought I'd glance through the book quickly to make a decision if I'd follow up with a donation. I'd read half the essays in the book before I put it back down. Wisely, the publishers lead with an essay from the CEO of Whole Foods - certainly a company that most college students and many 'liberals' relate to. The essays in the book are well written (the Whole Foods essay is actually an invterview, not an essay) and concise with their thesis well articulated. The book explores ideas such as the difference between free-market capitalism and crony capitalism; the value of creative destruction; how capitalism and competition is about cooperation; etc.

My immediate reaction to the book is to buy dozens more to hand out to both like minded and opposite minded. I highly recommend this book as well as the organizations

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and Easy to Understand Collection! October 7, 2011

By Kevin Currie-Knight TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Capitalism takes the blame for a lot of things, particularly in the academy. It produces gross inequalities, perpetuates the status quo, values profits above people, leads to the survival of the fittest and cultural hegemony, etc. This collection of essays, geared toward college students and layreaders, is designed to address where these attributions about capitalism are wrong and, in fact, to show that the opposite of them is often true. Capitalism leads to an increase of wealth for all, cooperation, an upsetting of the status quo over time, etc. Below, I will list just some of the very good essays found in this book.

Section 1 - "The Virtues of Entrepreneurial Capitalism" - contains essays celebrating how capitalism creates incentives for people to create value for others. Economic historian Diedre McCloskey writes that we can trace the industrial revolution primarily to an improvement in how society values its entrepreneurs and creative market actors. David Boaz dispels the idea that capitalism is dog-eat-dog competition, but revolves around cooperation between traders. Tom Palmer relays his personal experience frequenting a for-profit and not-for-profit hospital, arguing that the profit motive - far from leading to duplicity and dis ingenuity, leads people to perform more effectively and honestly.

Section II - "Voluntary Interaction and Self-Interest" - contains essays celebrating capitalism's ability to channel people's self-interest into social benefits. (I gain most when I provide products and services that others value, etc.) Chinese economist Mao Yushi writes about the "paradox of morality" - the idea that society functions best and most cohesively when we all a bit self-interested. Philosopher David Kelley writes in defense of rational self-interest as the most moral guide of our action.

Section III - "The Production and Distribution of Wealth" - has essays dealing with how markets distribute wealth. Commonly, we speak about the market as a thing that distributes wealth and thus, it can distribute justly or unjustly. But the market isn't a thing, but a process of millions of people interacting with each other, deciding where to spend their money, what goods to create, and what goods to buy. Economist Ludwig Lachmann's essay is concerned with dispelling the idea that that market simply perpetuates status-quo distributions. But, he notes, the market is not a fixed distributor, but a dynamic process, where people rise and fall in income over time more often than not. African political scientist Temba Nolutshunga writes about the positive benefits for the poor that African and other countries have witnessed once they liberalize their markets. Why is this? Because capitalism revolves not around exploitation so much as mutual gains from trade: someone can only get rich by trading with others. You can only "exploit" me if I decide to trade what you want from me for what I want from you. And this, way more often than not, benefits both parties, and even those outside of the transaction.

Lastly, section IV - "Globalizing Capitalism" - is a brief set of essays about the virtues of globalization. Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa writes to dispel the myth that globalization destroys local cultures, by pointing out what should have been obvious: first, capitalism doesn't compel anything that people don't want, and secondly, it is a myth to think that cultures are tings that don't change over time ALL the time. Nobel economist Vernon Smith writes about the culmination of lab research he and others have done about markets, noting that the larger the market, the better everyone in it tends to do. He suggests that 'outsourcing' is not the evil thing we think it is, but is simply a form of market specialization where those who can produce x more cheaply and efficiently (good for consumers) do so, freeing up others to produce what THEY produce most effectively (again, good for consumers).

All in all, I very much enjoyed this very thorough and easy-reading collection. Not all the authors agree on all things and I found a few things here and there to disagree with (David Kelley's arguments for one, as I am not a fan of Ayn Rand and find her, and him, inconsistent at times). Some essays are a bit more academic and "dense" than others, but I wouldn't say any of them is a terribly hard read.

This is a great collection for college students who want to explore the "other side" of the arguments they likely often hear about capitalism. (The book ends with a short bibliography of other recommended readings.) For the price, and the quality, I wholeheartedly recommend it to others.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and good read January 1, 2012

By Robert G

Format:Paperback

This small book I got for free in a training event helped me out very much understanding the complexity of Capitalism. As the book explains, Capitalism is very complex so it cannot be explained by Material factors alone. This book has also helped in dispelling myths about "greed" and other arguments made by the advocates of Anti Capitalism, and the misconceptions of Capitalism. It is not a book written from a single author, rather than a series of scholars and experts from around the world, making the reading very diverse, so it is in other words, reading different works and essays all in one book easy to read and mind opening at the same time. There where some readings that was challenging to understand, but nothing in the book that made it impossible to understand. I recommend this book to anyone, anywhere, anytime. This may seem like a second hand book to some, but once they start reading it, there opinions will start to change.