Introduction to Radical Capitalism - Part I

http://zambia.co.zm/articles/radical_capitalism1.html

One of the most common comments one hears whenever there is a discussion on how Africa can solve its problems is this: “we have tried socialism and we have tried capitalism; neither of them have worked. It is time for us to try out a new system of economics, something invented by ourselves.”

This statement always sounds very attractive to many unsuspecting intellectuals and yet it is quite a meaningless statement. To break it down to essentials, what it actually means is this: “we have tried taking the rights of individuals to own their property from them, and we have tried letting individuals keep their rights of owning their property; neither has worked. It is time for us to try out a new system, something invented by ourselves.”

Unfortunately, there is no “third way”. This is a question of very basic logic. Either you allow a person to be an owner of his property or you forcefully assume ownership and control of his property (through government). The former is the essence of capitalism and the latter is the essence of socialism, whether you like those two terms or not.

This is part of an excellent series of essays on Radical Capitalism, written by an editor in Zambia. I stumbled upon these writings by accident, and quickly realized they were very articulate arguments in favor of capitalism. I was further surprised to find out that they were written in the context of a public debate happening right now in Zambia concerning the organization of their society and government! It seems they are in the process of creating a new Constitution, and this writer is advocating the adoption of capitalism as the moral basis of government for Zambia.