Rainer Zitelmann - In Defense of Capitalism: Debunking the Myths

One of the most important books in decades defending capitalism. Well researched and well written, it not only makes the case for free markets but also demolishes Thomas Pikettys much publicized tract trashing capitalism. Adam Smith would have been impressedand proud.

STEVE FORBES, CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF FORBES MEDIA

Supporters of capitalism should keep a copy of In Defense of Capitalism close at hand wherever they are. Historian Rainer Zitelmanns new book is full of interesting and convincing arguments that will not only make the reader understand that capitalism is the greatest invention in human history, but also equip them to counter the negative arguments against it. The many myths critical of capitalism are refuted with a wealth of facts and cogent arguments that the critics will not be able to effectively answer. Anyone who wants to know the truth about capitalism should read this book.

JOHN MACKEY, WHOLE FOODS MARKETS FOUNDER

Capitalism has long been defined by its enemies. They mischaracterize it as cronyism, when the true logic of capitalism brings an end to unearned privileges and offers opportunities for all. This new book by Rainer Zitelmann answers a critical need, especially as illiberal politicians now blame capitalism for the misery they themselves created through interventionist economic policies. People all over the world need to stand up for capitalism as an engine of innovation and of rising living standards for all. Let us be grateful that In Defense of Capitalism provides a thorough review of the facts that make our case.

BRAD LIPS, CEO ATLAS NETWORK

There are dozens of fashionable anti-capitalist platitudes which have reached the status of conventional wisdoms. Even though these are all profoundly wrong and ill-informed, some of them can be amazingly hard to counter in a debate, because anti-capitalists have a tendency to talk in clichs, soundbites, abstractions and assertions, which are difficult to engage with in a rational way. As a result, they all too often go unchallenged, which further cements the anti-capitalist intellectual hegemony. In this book, Zitelmann provides the perfect antidote.

KRISTIAN NIEMIETZ, HEAD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC AFFAIRS LONDON

For well over 100 years people have been emigrating away from socialism to countries where there is more economic freedom and entrepreneurial opportunity. To capitalism, in other words. Even the Berlin Wall was not an airtight Venus flytrap for the East German socialists. Chances are, however, that you were taught the opposite in schoolthat capitalism is the source of virtually all human misery including poverty, pollution, war, and even fascism. In his book In Defense of Capitalism Rainer Zitelmann exposes the myths and superstitions that you were taught in school and provides you with a scholarly yet eminently readable explanation of economic reality. It is socialism that is the real ideological opiate of the masses that has caused the greatest miseries the world has known, as generations of immigrants have demonstrated by voting with their feet (for capitalism and against socialism).

PROFESSOR THOMAS DILORENZO, SENIOR FELLOW, LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE, AND AUTHOR OF HOW CAPITALISM SAVED AMERICA AND THE PROBLEM WITH SOCIALISM

Rainer Zitelmann is already well known for his well-informed defence of capitalism and wealth accumulation. In this book, he uses international opinion poll data to understand different countries attitudes to capitalism and get inside the mind of anti-capitalists. From there he takes on ten of the most common misconceptions about capitalism and overcomes them with a powerful blend of arguments and hard facts.

EAMONN BUTLER, DIRECTOR ADAM SMITH INSTITUTE LONDON

Grab a pint with your friends and have a chat over current affairs. The chances are that if one of your friends talks about capitalism (or neoliberalism, for that matter), they are using the word as a short-cut for the status quo, and all thats wrong with it. In this remarkable book, Rainer Zitelmann clears the confusion: capitalism doesnt create poverty nor foreshadows war. Quite the contrary, actually.

Common misconceptions about capitalism are rooted less in empirical evidence than in the widespread hostility of intellectuals for an economic system which does not require their enlightened leadership to flourish. Zitelmann does not engage in the description of an ideal capitalism, but presents capitalism as it exists in our world. In capitalist economies, to a certain extent, common people have to decide their own economic future. Unleashing the ordinary persons economic liberty, even if done very partially, tends to produce more wealth and improves the lot of most individuals way better than most elaborate government plans by Economics PhDs.

PROFESSOR ALBERTO MINGARDI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, ISTITUTO BRUNO LEONI, MILAN

In Defense of Capitalism

FIRST EDITION 2023

Copyright 2023 Rainer Zitelmann

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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IN THE PUBLIC MIND , capitalism is associated with everything that has gone wrong with the world. For many, and not just adherents to the political religion of anti-capitalism, the word itself is synonymous with the ultimate evil. Wherever you look, capitalism does not seem to have many friends or alliesdespite the fact that it has been the most successful economic system in human history.

The greatest trick anti-capitalists have pulled is to compare the real-world system under which we live with an ideal of the perfect world of their dreams, an ideal that does not and has never existed anywhere in the world. Anti-capitalists rely on the fact that most people know little about history and the extreme poverty and inhumane circumstances our ancestors lived in before capitalism emerged. And they know that most people today will have learned very little from their teachers at school or university about the cruel and callous conditions under socialism.

Finally, they paint the future in the blackest colors, whereby they attribute every problem and crisis not to failures of the state, but to alleged deficiencies in the market. And the fact that every single anti-capitalist system without exception has ended in failure is an argument socialists are not willing to accept. They always have a response readyThat was not true socialism at all!and confidently insinuate that, after 100 years of failed socialist experiments, they have finally found the right recipe to make socialism work after all.

In essence, capitalism is an economic system, based on private ownership and competition, whereby companies themselves are free to determine what and how much they produce, aided in their decisions by the prices set by the market. The central roles in capitalist economies are played by entrepreneurs who serve to develop new products and discover new market opportunities, and consumers whose individual purchasing decisions ultimately determine the success or failure of the entrepreneur. At its heart, capitalism is an entrepreneurial economic system. In fact, entrepreneurial economics would be the most appropriate term to describe it.