Short-sighted And Impatient Efforts To Wipe Out

The Capitalist System Has Lifted Mankind Out Of Mass Poverty. It Is This System That In The Last Century, In The Last Generation, Even In The Last Decade, Has Acceleratively Been Changing The Face Of The World, And Has Provided The Masses Of Mankind With Amenities That Even Kings Did Not Possess Or Imagine A Few Generations Ago.

Inflation Makes The Extension Of Socialism Possible By Providing The Financial Chaos In Which It Flourishes. The Fact Is That Socialism And Inflation Are Cause And Effect, They Feed On Each Other!

The Question Is Not Whether We Wish To See Everybody As Well Off As Possible. Among Men Of Good Will Such An Aim Can Be Taken For Granted. The Real Question Concerns The Proper Means Of Achieving It. And In Trying To Answer This We Must Never Lose Sight Of A Few Elementary Truisms. We Cannot Distribute More Wealth Than Is Created. We Cannot In The Long Run Pay Labor As A Whole More Than It Produces.

The Vital Consideration Of Incentives Is Almost Systematically Overlooked In The Proposals Of Agitators For More And Bigger Government Welfare Schemes. We Should All Be Concerned About The Plight Of The Poor And Unfortunate. But The Hard Two-part Question That Any Plan For Relieving Poverty Must Answer Is: How Can We Mitigate The Penalties Of Failure And Misfortune Without Undermining The Incentives To Effort And Success.

Competition Always Tends To Bring About The Most Economical And Efficient Method Of Production. Those Who Are Most Successful In This Competition Will Acquire More Capital To Increase Their Production Still Further; Those Who Are Least Successful Will Be Forced Out Of The Field. So Capitalist Production Tends Constantly To Be Drawn Into The Hands Of The Most Efficient.