I’m baffled that anybody who is both knowledgeable and well-meaning can choose some strain of collectivism (socialism, fascism, communism, etc) over capitalism.
It should be a slam dunk for free enterprise, assuming the goal is better lives for ordinary people.
Indeed, both entries for my 2025 Counter-Tweet of the Year contest involve the superiority of capitalism over statism.
- Chris Freiman’s response to someone praising China’s economic approach over the U.S. approach.
- Jeremy Horpedahl’s response to someone making the absurd claim that capitalism produces poverty.
Today, I’m going to add a third contestant for counter-tweet of the year. And it happens to be another entry from Chris Freiman.
Here’s his response to someone who shared a quote about the supposed superiority of socialism.
The map comparing South Korea and North Korea is one of the strongest arguments for the superiority of free markets.
But I can’t resist a brief diversion to make a different point.
The quote is from Deng Xiaoping, who actually deserves credit for the the partial liberalization of the Chinese economy.
So I’ve always wondered whether his theory of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” was simply a way of pretending to be a good communist while moving his nation in the right direction.
The bad news is that his nation only went about one-fourth of the way as far as was/is needed for China to become a rich nation. So maybe an explicit rejection of socialism is needed for China to make the next big step in the right direction.
But I’m digressing. The main focus of today’s column is all about debunking the silly notion that socialism can produce better results than capitalism.
