Are capitalism and democracy incompatible? (legal, solution, dollars, politicians)

[belmont22]

I've noticed that most libertarian capitalists tend to be anti-democratic, feeling that we should vote with our dollars rather than with ballots, and that democracy is inefficient and wasteful and that corporations and consumers, not voters and politicians, should run things.

I think there's very little difference between a libertarian capitalist and an anarchist and I notice a strong anti-government sentiment runs through libertarian thought. What do you think - do you think there will eventually be a "Cold War" between the moderate Keynesian capitalists and the libertarian fundamentalist capitalists?

[saxondale351]

Its a false question, the answer is yes to pure capitalism. You can not have pure capitalism and a free democracy. Pure Capitalism is nothing but pure Darwinism. Survival of the fittest.

[Patricius Maximus]

Democracy is how you run your government; whatever economic system you have is how you run what is outside your government. It's a silly question. Capitalism and democracy are perfectly compatible.

Also, what libertarian capitalists are trying to get at is that we should have liberty; freedom to choose who provides us with services on a level legal playing field induces competition, which puts pressure upon the providers to improve the quality and price for their customers. Providers must serve their customers; if people don't like the service they're getting, they switch providers or create a provider of their own. The biggest difference is that you are free to make a choice other than what the majority chooses, in the same way that we choose our own soap rather than voting on what kind of soap we should all use.

It should be pointed out that in "democracy" as practiced today voters do not run things; they elect politicians into certain offices and then these people run things. To the extent that voters are running it at all they are in essence hiring outsiders to run things for them. When you choose who provides you with a service in a free market the voters are making a direct choice for each service/product, so there is a good case to be made that markets function more democratically than governments.

There is also the matter of how corporations are run, which range from ownership by one person to full-fledged cooperatives. Cooperatives that are run democratically are for obvious reasons perfectly compatible with both democracy and capitalism.

[SocialistAtheist]

I think they both suck.

[Spaten_Drinker]

Where is this "democracy" you speak of ? America is not a democracy. The word "democracy" is not even mentioned in the Constitution.

[BentBow]

Democracy works unless there is not as much freedom as you thought.

Democracy is incompatible with Fascism, Socialism & Communism.

[aedubber]

When you have honest politicians it can work hand in hand.

[SocialistAtheist]

Its not supposed to be but it is certainly run like it is one.

[GregW]

The primary conflicts are between Crony Capitalism and really free markets. The monopolists just use the laws created by their supplicants to protect their profits from competition. Regulated Capitalism is an economic system that creates vast amounts of wealth. Monopoly Capitalism assures that those profits go to the owners and not to the people that generate the wealth.

[marcopolo]

Democracy (broadly defined) is political freedom. Capitalism is economic freedom. As two facets of freedom, they can coexist.

The systems of politics and economics can interfere with each other, and reduce freedom. The best solution is to have the smallest possible government that does the job, so any payoff in subverting it is correspondingly small.