Scholar lauds capitalist system

While skeptics may claim capitalism leads to a corrupt and overly materialistic society, Douglas Bandow believes that it is actually a vital system for a moral society. Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, delivered a lecture last Wednesday entitled "The Morality of Capitalism." The event, held in Vance Hall, was co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Economics Society and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan, educational organization whose goal is to convey to college students a better understanding of the values and institutions that sustain a free society. Bandow, who attended Florida State University and Stanford Law School, has appeared on several television programs, such as ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, CNN's Crossfire and the Oprah Winfrey Show. In Wednesday's speech, he argued that capitalism transcends its traditional critiques and that it is moral in both philosophical and practical terms. According to Bandow, capitalism is philosophically moral because it allows people the freedom of choice and thus "affirms the dignity of the individual and allows him to be the only agent that can be held accountable for his actions." Continuing on the philosophical track, Bandow argued that, contrary to frequent criticisms, capitalism is a more just system than public ownership and centralization. "Capitalism is driven by consumers rather than politics and therefore diffuses power in society," he said. By decentralizing power, he continued, capitalism "counteracts the tendency for absolute power to corrupt absolutely and thus breeds morality." Switching gears to a practical standpoint, Bandow argued that capitalism creates abundance and therefore breeds generous and charitable societies. He conceded that "poverty, income inequality and pollution are natural by-products of capitalism," but he pointed out that such conditions also exist without capitalism. "It is actually the material wealth created by capitalism which affords us the luxury of even questioning these things," he said. Bandow went on to address claims that capitalism "degrades values, creates consumerism and causes people to lose sight of spirituality and community." He argued that people must distinguish between human nature and what is an effect of capitalism. "Materialism exists in every society," he said. Concluding his talk, Bandow said that despite being the most morally correct economic system, capitalism by itself is not a perfect system. "You need a larger moral system," he said. "Capitalism does not guarantee morality, and it does not guarantee the advancement of human values." Students responded positively to the talk, explaining that it provided them with useful information. "Bandow gave an effectively concise lecture on the nature of capitalism," College freshman Aaron Yunis said.