Source: EconLog
by Christopher Freiman
“It is obvious that we should want an economic system that fairly distributes burdens and benefits. But it’s not obvious that socialism is this system. Merely identifying socialism with a fair economic system is no more of a convincing defense of socialism than merely identifying capitalism with a fair economic system is a convincing defense of capitalism. This is a bit like someone arguing that the paleo diet is the healthiest diet because they’ll simply label whatever foods turn out to be the healthiest as ‘paleo.’ To fruitfully compare capitalism and socialism, then, we need an understanding of the specific economic institutions that characterize socialism and capitalism.” (09/11/24)