The arguments for free markets are easy to make, but too often Conservative politicians shy away from them

In Britain, too, capitalism remains our best hope. The free market has doubled household income in my lifetime, even after inflation, even after current woes. The young have seen post-crash incomes stagnate and Bank of England money-printing distort the economy by pushing house prices out of reach – but this was not the free market. Nor was the hundreds of billions printed to finance lockdowns.

Why is inflation so high? Because banks printed so much money to bankroll lockdowns: a result of distorting capitalism.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/22/capitalism-is-the-greatest-hope-for-britain-and-the-world/

FRASER NELSON

The most important intellectual discovery of my life came 20 years ago in the pages of Slitz, a sadly defunct lad’s magazine which wasn’t quite as risqué as it sounds. I was trying to learn Swedish and the few words that it printed were about my level. So I’d sit in a cafe with a dictionary and notebook, seeking to learn. Under such circumstances I came across an interview with Johan Norberg, an economist then in his twenties, entitled “Kapitalist? Javisst!” – (“Capitalist? Yes, sure!”). I tracked down his book, and my world changed.

I’ve since been told by far more erudite friends that Norberg’s work is nothing new, just a restatement of arguments made by Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Karl Popper. But they were writing about theory: Norberg had it all backed up with contemporary evidence. The collapse of communism had started a new experiment: what happens when the free market really does go global? The results were coming in by 2001 and Norberg collated them. Every day in every way, things were getting much better. We were – and still are – living in a golden age.

Since then, this thesis has been proved a thousand times over, but something strange has happened. As capitalism’s achievements piled higher, the more unpopular it seemed to become. Its wins have been taken for granted, its defects magnified as never before. The big charities, which witnessed free trade cutting poverty faster than any scheme of handouts, seemed to hate it the most. A generation has since grown up marinated in capitalism’s success, yet convinced of its failure. What’s going on?

I accept that, at present, it does look like a strange kind of success. Inflation is surging, the Bank of England has just increased rates yet again, mortgages are being pushed to agonising levels. Taxes are higher than any time in living memory, living standards are falling faster. Some 29 per cent of UK children are said to be living in poverty, as are 650 million globally – while, as Oxfam often points out, the top 80 billionaires have more wealth than the poorest half of the world.

There are endless rebuttals to this, as well as counter-examples – but no one tends to make them because no one defends capitalism. I can see why. It’s a daft word, usually used to make the basic notion of freedom sound like an evil ideology. Capitalism isn’t about capital, but about transferring power to the many, from the few. It’s about allowing people to make decisions on what will best improve their lives and communities.

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