The Case for Real Capitalism - 15 December 2011

In a new paper released today The Case for Real Capitalism Jesse Norman MP argues that Britain needs to return to real capitalism after more than a decade of crony capitalism. Specifically: 

• Capitalism is the greatest tool of economic development, wealth creation and social advance ever known. In capitalism, owners of intellectual, financial or human capital are enabled to earn reward for putting their capital at risk in open and generally free markets.

• The case for capitalism is not just economic and social; it is also moral. For many decades, capitalism itself has come under attack on moral grounds. But the bigger truth is that capitalism is at root a force for good. It relies on personal freedom and individual autonomy; the virtues of hard work, creativity and thrift; social linkage and exchange; institutions such as the rule of law and the family; effective government; a wider culture and a social order in which opportunity exists for all of energy and talent, that is for all. 

• Crony capitalism is what happens when the constraints of law and markets and culture cease to be effective. Business activity loses any relation to the wider public interest, while business merit is separated from business reward. Entrepreneurship and value creation are replaced by rent-seeking, and certain groups become enormously wealthy without taking risk. These factors in turn lead to long-term economic underperformance, and sometimes to social unrest.

Read the full paper here.