Stop Blaming Capitalism!

The Dangerous Lurch Toward Authoritarianism Were you forwarded this email? [Sign-up to The Daily Reckoning here.]( [Unsubscribe]( [Daily Reckoning] Stop Blaming Capitalism! - Big Business is often a greater enemy of capitalism than socialists… - Big Business is often a greater enemy of capitalism than socialists… - Then Jeffrey Tucker shows you how the “grassroots tyrants” among us threaten your liberty as much as any government… Recommended Link [MUST SEE 'Set and Forget' Dividend Portfolio]( [Read more here...]( The easiest way to self-manage your dividend income portfolio without losing a ton of money is following my advice below. Dividend stocks I personally recommend and buy myself are meant to held for a long time. One of my current dividend payers to 'set and forget' for now is paying over 25% yields. There’s a process I follow to build this dividend portfolio that grows and ends up paying your bills for life. See how easy it is to follow. See how this 'set and forget' dividend portfolio works. [Click Here To Learn More]( Somewhere in the Lower 48 States October 15, 2021 Editor’s note: People often confuse the crony capitalism we have today with capitalism itself. They therefore blame capitalism for the failures of the system. But as libertarian writer Jeffrey Tucker shows you today, this is a dangerous mistake. [Jeffrey Tucker]Dear Reader, The resentment against Big Tech and their role in lockdowns, mandates and censorship is starting to boil over. Sure, they deliver services we all need. During lockdowns, Amazon became essential, and very rich. It should not be faulted for that. What it should be faulted for is favoring the policies that crushed so many businesses. Jeff Bezos’ own newspaper, The Washington Post, was a top advocate of the lockdowns that have wrecked this country. Big Tech’s role in all of this won’t be forgotten. Sadly for the future of civilization, this has also unleashed a frightening level of hatred of capitalism. This is because most people associate capitalism with whatever the richest companies and billionaires think and do. That’s a huge mistake, as Milton Friedman pointed out long ago. He said that Big Business is typically a greater enemy of capitalism than the socialists themselves. He was right. But you can’t convince the masses of that. My preferred definition of capitalism would go something like this: an economic environment that protects and celebrates the right of voluntary exchange and accumulation of private property by all people, according to their own lights, so long as they do not engage in force or fraud. Mostly, we advocates of capitalism have always celebrated the rich — provided that they get that way on a level playing field of law that protects everyone’s right to trade and innovate. When you forcibly unemploy millions of people and block business owners from serving customers, and then other companies are given a free hand to make all the money they want, we’re dealing with a different animal altogether. Hence, we have this weird irony at work. People are blaming capitalism for the most egregious overreach of governments into the economy in generations if not in the whole of human history. Why? Because the biggest and richest companies were thereby made richer and bigger. Another feature of capitalist ideology has generally been to defend the owners of capital against pillaging by government and agitation against them by organized workers. But now we have another weird problem. Most of the socialist organs of opinion have favored lockdowns and mandates (“public health measures”) despite their egregious effects on the working classes and vulnerable populations. The pilots, nurses, mechanics and many other workers who are in full rebellion against vaccine mandates are your friends. They are favoring nothing but the right to choose and protect their bodily integrity against physical invasion. It’s the owners of the largest companies who are acquiescing to government orders. What we are seeing right now is something no one could have predicted. Governments are being discredited. Their minions are deeply unpopular. The anger is pouring out into the streets in London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Melbourne. It is also right here in the U.S., but it is taking the form of seething resentment held mostly quietly. Have you seen Biden’s popularity ratings? He is in the red by 10 points, and the gap between “approve” and “disapprove” is growing by the day. The crucial question is what happens next. This kind of social and political tension rarely ends in more freedom for everyone. It usually ends in the entrenchment of fascism or some dangerous socialist revolution. We cannot rule that out, but things have become very complicated. It’s the “right wing” in America who should be arguing most consistently for the rights of workers today, while rethinking entirely their previously uncritical stance toward Big Business. We really do live in an unsustainable situation today. It is best illustrated by the executive order just issued by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. It forbids any entity in the state from mandating any vaccines. This is a direct challenge to the Biden administration, which has imposed a national mandate for anyone working for the federal government or contracting with the federal government. In my lifetime, we’ve never seen a conflict this intense between any state and the federal government. The state says it is illegal to mandate, while the federal government says it is illegal not to mandate. There is no reconciling these two positions. Something has to give, and it will. We had better hope and pray that the anger against the government and the overclass does not ultimately turn against the free economy itself. In order for that not to happen, the opposition to the current regime needs to get its thinking straight, give up its old habits and start celebrating the freedom of everyone. Below, I show you why it’s not just Big Tech and the government that are the problem. It’s also the “grassroots tyrants” who could very well be your neighbors and co-workers. Read on. Regards, Jeffrey Tucker for The Daily Reckoning Editor’s note: Ever since yesterday afternoon, our offices have been in a complete tizzy. That’s because we went LIVE with our biggest event of the year: [The Six Predictions Summit]( Some of the biggest names in financial publishing went live on Zoom and proceeded to drop bombshell after bombshell (not to mention giving away some of their best picks and predictions completely free). Thousands of people had a chance to attend… And most were completely shocked by what they saw and heard. Needless to say, this is an event you don’t want to miss. If you did for whatever reason, you can still get caught up right away. [CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE REPLAY]( Remember, all the recommendations and predictions were given away for free. So if you haven’t watched this yet, make sure you take a second and get caught up now. We don’t know how long it will remain up, so please don’t delay. [Go here for immediate access.]( Recommended Link [Strange 2021 Prophecy Rapidly Coming True]( [Read more here...]( America’s #1 Futurist George Gilder is telling American’s to “brace yourself” for the coming $16.8 trillion revolution. This same revolution could redefine millions of jobs and radically transform the way just about every major corporation does business. It could even change the way you get paid, save and invest for retirement. And, says George, it could make you exceedingly rich... [Click Here To See Why]( The Daily Reckoning Presents: "There is always, in any society, a minority whose instincts rejoice in the permission to persecute; it is a release from civilization"… ****************************** The Tyrant Next Door By Jeffrey Tucker [Jeffrey Tucker]In the simple model of tyranny we learned as schoolkids, there is a bad guy on top, or perhaps several because he needs advisers, and then there is everyone else suffering under his yoke. The job of freedom is to overthrow the powerful bad guy and set everyone free. I say it’s the simple model, but I’m pretty sure that I believed this all my life. And there is more than a grain of truth in this. The biggest conflicts in world history always pit the government against the people. And yet there is more going on here. I recall reading The Black Book of Communism when it came out in the 1990s. The chapter on China I found most riveting. It described the terrifying force called the Red Guards. It was what we call today a nongovernment organization. Terrorists, more precisely. They were more convinced of Mao’s teachings than Mao himself. They were blinded by Red ideology and prepared to kill for it. They did. Many millions died. It is reported that Mao himself was alarmed at their ferocity, but not enough so to put a stop to it. His teachings had unleashed hell. He had to light the match, but the fuel that kept it raging came from below, as neighbors turned on neighbors and families tore themselves apart. People competed with each other to see how much terror and oppression they could inflict on each other in the name of building communism and being loyal to the party. But surely, I thought, this is a cultural habit unique to China. Something to do with the collectivist/conformist mindset. We know little to nothing about that in the West, because we celebrate individualism and are suspicious of power. We don’t join mobs. We don’t find meaning in conformity. We don’t inflict violence on each other out of choice. Such an example of grassroots tyranny cannot be found in our civilization. Or so I believed... Cancel Culture and Despotism During this pandemic period, we’ve found out otherwise. It all began in March 2020, when millions of Americans were recruited into the ranks of what I used to jokingly call Corona Justice Warriors. Over time, they became less of a joke and more of a threat. They began by policing our communities for mask wearing. They would hang around the grocery stores and yell at people for walking in the wrong direction. They would denounce you for standing too close to others. It was a weird time. But it is hardly over. Just yesterday, I wanted to help a person struggling up the stairs with a big box. She was heavily masked. I tried to help, but her eyes burned through me with fire. She shook her head right and left. I tried again and she jumped back in anger. OK, I guess my little act of generosity is not appreciated here. So I stepped away and she went back to struggling by herself, happier in her plight than in taking the risk of having me infect her. Or something. All these examples sound a bit petty. But actually the impulse behind these actions is much more threatening. It is tearing the country apart, and with the president’s encouragement. With each speech, Biden looks for and finds scapegoats for public consumption. First it was the South. Then the red states. Then the virus migrated so he turned on the unvaccinated. Now he demonizes those who don’t want the vaccine and encourages everyone else to do the same. The idea makes no sense. If you were vaccinated, we were told, you wouldn’t have to worry about getting infected. That turned out not to be true. So how to explain the infections among the unvaccinated? That’s when the White House seized on blaming the noncompliant. But it makes no sense. This virus has to become endemic with or without a vaccine. In fact, that’s already happening. Recommended Link [Ex-CIA Insider Has a Stark Warning About Biden's "Recovery"]( [Read more here...]( As a former advisor to the CIA and the Pentagon… It gives me no pleasure to give you this stark warning... but I have to do it nonetheless. Anything else would be grossly irresponsible... Put simply, Joe Biden's widely touted post-pandemic "bailout" is doomed. In fact, I've uncovered three ticking financial time bombs that could derail America's "recovery." [See My Full Warning Here]( The impulse behind the demonization of the unvaccinated is essentially puritanical. We have to get rid of unclean things and people. Also, holding the wrong political ideology makes you unclean. You should be purged. That is why the Biden administration is not concerned about mass firings. It helps purify the country of recalcitrants. It is a Maoist impulse, and Biden has his own Red Guards, the Karens screaming on Twitter and in stores and wearing masks alone in cars. They are the grassroots tyrants. The historian Will Durant wrote: "There is always, in any society, a minority whose instincts rejoice in the permission to persecute; it is a release from civilization." It’s the right. It’s “the Joker.” It’s the Red Guards. It’s the malcontents looking for some meaning to their miserable lives, and they think they have found it in the persecution of others. Government benefits from this, and unleashes. The sadistic impulse spreads and spreads, threatening civilization itself. The Purge Is On No one is truly safe in this world. The comedian and commentator Dave Chappelle put up a routine on Netflix in which he said there are only two genders. The outcry was huge and came from within the company itself. He was staining the platform, and he must be purged, they said. His film survives for now, but the attention given to this heresy serves as a warning to others: Do not dissent, even on basic and noncontroversial biological facts. Humor is out of the question in the midst of social, cultural and political cleansing. Think about this. This hell of persecution and purging happened in good economic times. We are headed now toward very bad economic times. We are being warned about double-digit inflation. It’s ridiculous: Double-digit inflation is already here, running 20% and above. The hashtag #emptyshelves is trending right now on Twitter. I never thought I would see that in my lifetime. People blame supply chains, even if they do not know what those are. But the brokenness runs much deeper. Then you have the labor crisis that is intensifying. And heating oil futures are soaring as we move into winter. I spoke to a famous epidemiologist yesterday. He expects a huge wave of sickness this winter, not just from COVID but all the other diseases unleashed by the lockdowns that wrecked immune systems, stopped cancer screenings and led to weight gain and drug and alcohol abuse. Put all this together and you have the makings of impending disaster. We’ve already turned on each other in these manufactured bad times. When the times become really terrible, it’s going to get worse. We’ll discover the truth about tyranny. When it comes, the driving force won’t have to be the dictator. It may be our neighbors and friends. Regards, Jeffrey Tucker for The Daily Reckoning Ed. note: Ever since yesterday afternoon, our offices have been in a complete tizzy. That’s because we went LIVE with our biggest event of the year: [The Six Predictions Summit]( Some of the biggest names in financial publishing went live on Zoom and proceeded to drop bombshell after bombshell (not to mention giving away some of their best picks and predictions completely free). Thousands of people had a chance to attend… And most were completely shocked by what they saw and heard. Needless to say, this is an event you don’t want to miss. If you did for whatever reason, you can still get caught up right away. [CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE REPLAY]( Remember, all the recommendations and predictions were given away for free. So if you haven’t watched this yet, make sure you take a second and get caught up now. We don’t know how long it will remain up, so please don’t delay. [Go here for immediate access.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [Jeffrey Tucker]( is an independent editorial consultant who served as Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. Add feedback@dailyreckoning.com to your address book: [Whitelist us]( Additional Articles & Commentary: [Daily Reckoning Website]( Join the conversation! Follow us on social media: [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [RSS Feed]( [YouTube]( The Daily Reckoning is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press delivering daily email issues and advertisements. 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