Southern Industrial
17-04-2004, 03:19
I am a utilitarian. That means I belive our political process should be targeted towards making as many people as happy as we can.
Traditionally, this has been a socialist idealogy. The capitalist argument for economic freedom is irrelevent becuase we feel freedom is a means to an end. Now I could imagine a wealfare-state utilitarianism, but can there be a pure, Adam Smith capitalist utilitarian? Is there one in NS?
Libertovania
17-04-2004, 13:06
There are such beasts. The economist Milton Friedman fits that description to a tee being virtually the modern incarnation of Adam Smith. Perhaps you'd like his book - "Capitalism and Freedom" - which is what started me down the free markets road. There is also "Free to choose" by Milton and Rose (his wife) Friedman but I haven't read that so I can't comment.
His son David Friedman also has a book - "the Machinery of Freedom - a guide to radical capitalism" - in which he makes a utilitarian case for what is sometimes called "anarcho-capitalism" where everything is provided by the market including police and courts.
Another utilitarian free marketer would be the sociologist Charles Murray whose book "what it means to be a libertarian" is useful for highlighting the social problems generated by the welfare-warfare state. His book called something like "Losing Ground" caused quite a stir but I haven't read that one.
I'm sure there are loads more but as I'm sure you realise most people who defend free markets do so on the basis of rights or freedom. Usually these guys make utilitarian arguments too and ones to look out for are Murray Rothbard (economist and one of the founders of anarcho-capitalism), Jan Narvesson (philosopher and ex-utilitarian - look out for "The Libertarian Idea"), David Boaz (he has a book called "the Libertarian reader" or something like that) and Frederic Bastiat (witty 19th century French economist).