Capitalism is the solution to modern international problems, such as genocides and economic crises, said professor Andrew Bernstein in a lecture titled “Global Capitalism: The Cure for World Oppression and Poverty” Thursday night.
“Capitalism can and will liberate the rest of the world,” the philosophy professor from the State University of New York, Purchase said.
Bernstein said that capitalist systems revolve around the principle of individualism, and so they protect a person’s “moral right to happiness.” Because capitalism encourages free thinking, people claim more political economic freedom. This results in more room for growth, he said.
The world’s present economic crises exist, he said, not because of low wages, but because people have very low purchasing power.
“A salary of $500 million is useless if a loaf of bread costs $1 trillion,” Bernstein said. “It’s not how much you make; it’s how much you can buy.”
Bernstein accuses non-capitalist countries of depriving their citizens of economic freedom. In these countries, the speed of production lags and the supply of basic needs go down, causing prices to continue to soar past the point of affordability, he said.
He said that trade is free in capitalism as long as it is not criminal, and that the economic goal of capitalist countries is “to produce goods and trade peacefully.” Consequently, countries obtain an enormous supply of goods with lower prices.
He also said that tariffs “result to more harmonious relationships” among countries.
According to Bernstein, the success of capitalism is evident in once-impoverished countries such as Hong Kong and Japan. He also cited Europe’s transformation after replacing the feudalist governments as an example of capitalism’s success.
Furthermore, Bernstein said that capitalism, unlike other economic systems, upholds principles of human rights and is the foundation of world peace.
“Socialists deny human rights, and the battle for capitalism is vastly on moral grounds,” he said.
Capitalism stabilized the Western world by defeating the Nazis and the Soviet communists, he said. This not only gave way to large economic growth, but also to an increased international peace.
In addition, he said that the flourishing of capitalism in the United States during the 1800s helped to abolish slavery, and that capitalism and abolitionism “are intellectual blood-brothers.” He also said that slavery will never cease to exist in countries that refuse to switch to capitalism.
“Without capitalism, there can be no freedom,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein argues that capitalist countries are “freer countries.” He said the immigration patterns of people from non-capitalist countries to capitalist societies prove his claim. He cited the thousands of Cubans who “floated in boats” to the U.S. when Fidel Castro finally allowed them to move out of Cuba as proof.
Because of its past successes in moral grounds, capitalism can also help to end genocides and other human rights violations in third-world non-capitalist countries such as North Korea and Sudan, he said.
But not everybody agreed with Bernstein’s points. Prior to the start of the lecture, the Occupy UMass group distributed pamphlets titled “Capitalism: Myth and Reality” that challenge Bernstein’s claims.
“The lectures of Andrew Bernstein contain numerous myths, half-truths and outright lies designed to hide the reality of life under capitalism,” wrote the protestors in their pamphlets.
According to the pamphlet, 35.6 percent of the entire world’s wealth is owned by the richest 0.5 percent of the world. The pamphlet also deemed capitalism as a system “that robs the poor to give to the rich,” and that under capitalist governments, “wealth ends up in the hands of the super-rich, who do little or no work.”
The group also interrupted the lecture repeatedly, shouting their viewpoints and starting verbal fights with other audience members. They were removed by the police.
The event, which was also streamed live on the Internet, was the first public event organized by the New England Objectivist Society. Nathan Fatal, president of the newly-formed organization, was disappointed by the protest.
“These people came from an organization with nothing better to do,” Fatal said.
Ardee Napolitano can be reached at [email protected].
Correction: Within an earlier version of this article, the wording stated that the protest was “unexpected” by the New England Objectivist Society. It has been changed to reflect the group’s anticipation of protesters. The word “unexpected” has been removed.
