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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (23146)	7/8/2000 9:04:18 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Well, if Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard are comfortable with the word, I guess it's OK by me. Just seems like we're working within a Marxist framework here. the welfare state, whatever its defects, is still essentially capitalist. This statement concerns me. Isn't the welfare state essentially socialist?

To: Neocon who wrote (23146)	7/8/2000 9:16:44 AM
From: nihil	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

I agree that the essence of capitalism is the free capital market in contrast to other forms of capital ownership (such as socialism (government ownership) or fascism (corporate state). Capitalism (like other forms) is "an ideal" which is hardly ever completely realized. One can imagine an expression of capitalism in which labor markets were not free or unregulated, or which was free of income taxes. I think the key is not to confuse economic organization with political organization. One might have a high degree of capitalism without much personal political freedom at all (renaissance Florence and Venice) or a high degree of personal freedom without much economic freedom (5th century Athens). In those days we would have just let Bill Gates build the city a fleet and call it quits.