US Election 2004

Next Friday (11/12) at USC [see link at left of main page under Events], there will be a debate between Andrew Bernstein (Pace University Professor of Philosophy) and Peter Robertson (USC Professor of Social Policy Planning and Development).  The important question is “CAPITALI$M:  Is there a Moral Alternative?”

Bernstein will argue for laissez-faire capitalism.  According to the event announcement, his position is introduced as follows:

After roughly 250 years of capitalism, 80 years of socialism and millennia of statism more broadly, the historical verdict is in. Capitalism the system of individual rights has wrought vastly greater freedom and prosperity than has ever previously existed in the world. Whether in Western Europe, North America or the Asian Tigers, the system of individual rights has protected citizens’ freedom of speech, of intellectual expression, of the press, of religion and of the right to own property and seek profit. Not surprisingly, such freedom of the human mind has led to the highest general living standards of human history by whole orders of magnitude. The system of individual rights and limited government must be implemented in 3rd World nations for them to overthrow political oppression and rise out of the resultant destitution. 

Robertson will argue for an alternative to capitalism.  The announcement introduces his position as follows:

Laissez-faire capitalism, as practiced in today's global economy, is dysfunctional for the planet and for human society.  Despite all the benefits this economic system has generated throughout the modern era, the logic underlying capitalism is incompatible with the conditions of our post-modern, post-industrial, Information Age world.  The result is that capitalism is now doing as much harm as good, threatening the long-term sustainability of the global village.  Fortunately, an emerging set of frameworks, proposals, and applications are establishing the basis for some fundamental changes in the rules of the game by which capitalism is played.  Such changes can and should be made, and while we might continue to call the revised system capitalism, it will most certainly be a moral alternative to the contemporary version of laissez-faire capitalism. 

Fundamentally, this will be a dispute between the Reason, Freedom, and Justice of capitalism against ideals that resort to force to prevent the free exchange of values between individuals.

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