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Capitalism improves the quality of life for the working class not just because it leads to improved wages but also because it produces new, better, and cheaper goods.... Indeed, with capitalism, the emphasis shifted to producing goods as cheaply as possible for the masses--the working class--whereas artisans had previously produced their goods and wares mostly for the aristocracy. Under capitalism every business wants to cater to the masses, for that is where the money is.
THOMAS J. DILORENZO, How Capitalism Saved America
The word capitalism was coined by none other than Karl Marx, who hoped that it would help in his crusade to denigrate the system of private property and free enterprise and to promote socialism. Marx insinuated that the only beneficiaries of capitalism were the capitalists. Of course, nearly every one of Marx's assumptions (government would wither away under communism, capitalism would make workers poorer, etc.) turned out to be wrong, including this one. Free-market capitalism, based on private property and peaceful exchange, is the source of civilization and human progress. Human beings have a natural propensity to "truck, barter, and exchange," as Adam Smith said more than two centuries ago, and free-market capitalism is by far the best-known means by which this can be accomplished.
THOMAS J. DILORENZO, How Capitalism Saved America
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