In the 1940s, economist Friedrich Hayek said in his book, "The Road to Serfdom," that the road to serfdom was socialism. Economist Joseph Schumpeter, in "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy," feared that socialism would displace capitalism even though capitalism was a better system.
In the 21st century, self-proclaimed socialists like Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) are keeping the fears of Hayek and Schumpeter alive. Those fears are misplaced. The biggest threats to capitalism aren’t socialists, they are capitalists.
Capitalists, not socialists, pose the greatest threat to capitalism
When capitalists tout pro-business policies, they inevitably are talking about policies that use trade barriers and regulatory impediments to give themselves advantages over competitors.
They work the political process to get subsidies and tax breaks that benefit themselves but impose costs on everyone else. Policies advertised as “pro-business” are almost always anti-free market and anti-capitalism.
Political capitalism encroaches upon free-market capitalism because public policy is made by an elite few who have an incentive to use the policy-making process for their benefit. Think about the Occupy Wall Street language in which public policy benefits the 1 percent at the expense of the 99 percent.
But critics of our current system, including socialists, too often want more government programs and more government oversight to remedy that problem. These critics should recognize that an elite few create public policy; giving the government more oversight power means giving more power to the 1 percent.
