[ExI] OWS Rolling in the Mud

[Kelly Anderson]

2011/11/12 Alfio Puglisi <alfio.puglisi at gmail.com>:
> There is something that puzzles me, if no nation on Earth practices pure
> capitalism (and this is obviously true), but instead "some awful hybrid" how
> can the production of all those goods be ascribed to capitalism and not to
> something else? How is the partition done, if possible at all?

Alfio,

  The government itself produces very little. Oh, it does produce a
few things... security, a level of safety, environmental protection,
law enforcement, fire protection, roads, infrastructure, and a
relative pittance of research results. But by and large the government
"taxes" the productive not just in money, but also in regulation.

  If the government costs 15% of the economy... and produces less than
1% to 2% of the goods and services, then the portion of the economy
that operates within the context of some freedom must be responsible
for the rest. So I think it is quite fair to ascribe most of the
available goods and services that are available to us today to the
free capitalistic portions of our economy that remain. At the very
least, you must admit that for every dollar spent by the free portion
of the economy, we get more than for every dollar spent by the
government.

-Kelly