The excesses of capitalism are not simply a question of bad
management and a political unwillingness to properly regulate it by imposing
the right sort of checks and balances, but symptoms of a fundamentally and
irretrievably flawed system that tends toward destruction of human and other
life.
The idea of capitalism as an expression of economic freedom
that also secures moral and political freedom of thought, or the
notion that "free-market" economies are guided by an impartial
mechanism of supply and demand - an "invisible hand" to use Adam
Smith's metaphor - are both powerful indoctrinating notions. As such, they bear
little resemblance to actual reality. Smith himself never used the word
"capitalism," preferring to call his economics a "system of
natural liberty." In fact, the inner logic of capitalism can be difficult
to get hold of simply because there have been different configurations of capitalism
throughout history. In its classic form, before the advent of corporations
(when there was still an implicit sense of social responsibility, and
insatiable greed was considered a vice), capitalism might have appeared less
virulent. Additionally, there is reason to believe...
