Book Format:
Publisher: Regnery Publishing: A Division of State Media
Copyright © 2016 by Thomas DiLorenzo
Pages: 226
Chapters: 1-16
The Mainframe of the Book:
The publisher printed the quote without a page number. Thus, I cannot give a page number. "As Margaret Thatcher famously said, the problem with socialism and socialism is, "they always run out of other people's money."
Influencer:
The author is using "Friedrick Hayek wrote that the definition of "socialism" evolved in the twentieth century to mean income redistribution in pursuit of "equality," not through government ownership of the means of production but through the institutions of the welfare state and the "progressive" income tax." PG 5 As a capstone of his philosophy to justify his views against socialism like, "Great Britain adopted its brand of "democratic socialism, known as "Fabian socialism," after World War II as it nationalized many key industries, imposed very high rates of taxation, established a massive welfare state, and adopted socialized medicine and government-funded pensions." PG 7
Problem with Socialism:
People have risen to power under socialism; why fascism is just another form of socialism; how the "success" of Scandinavian socialism is a myth." PG13
Critical Point of Capitalism in the USA:
"The institutions of private property and free markets led to a burst of entrepreneurship and wealth creation. By 1776 the young American economy was a hundred times larger than it was in the 1630s, and Americans had already become among the most affluent people in the world."
The History Channel released an article titled "Slavery in America" that began in August 1619.1 On September 20th, 2020, the History Channel released an article titled "How Slavery Became Economic Engine of South." It illustrated how "slavery was so profitable, it sprouted more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation. With cash crops of tobacco, cotton and sugar cane, America's southern states became the economic engine of the burgeoning nation."2
Therefore, it was not the capitalist system which caused economic growth in the US. It was the slavery system which exploited workers to work on the land and not receive any form of wages.
Most importantly, the European settlers stole lands from the First Nations. Therefore, the European settlers did not work hard to acquire land.
In conclusion, the author is 100% wrong in his assertion that the capitalist system in the US caused economic growth. The method of slavery and stealing lands from the First Nations caused the US economy to grow.
Pioneer of Capitalist Philosophy:
"As Adam Smith explained in his famous 1776 treaties, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, what motivates people to put forth all of this effort and cooperation with each other to give us "our meat and our bread" is not their selflessness or their love of their fellow man, but their concern for their well-being. By pursuing their own self-interest in the free market, they coincidentally, as though led by an "invisible hand," benefit the rest of society as well." PG 25
"When a product or service becomes more scarce, consumers look for alternatives, which is one engine of innovation. When price rise, investors are altered to consumer demand and look to provide consumers with what they want at a lower price or to improve on the existing product or service." PG 26
Mr. Adam Smith asserts people are self-interested and are not having love for others to provide meat; they do it for their well-being and self-interest. The author contradicts his comment on the following page by saying when the price of goods and services rises, investors are developing new goods or services at lower prices to improve the existing product or service. When people have no love for each other, why should they do anything for each other? It is time to exploit one another.
Time to exploit one another is happening right now in North America. The landlords are increasing the price of rent. "Apartments where there was a change in tenants saw the rent go up by 18.9 per cent. Those where there was no change in tenancy saw rents go up by only 2.9 per cent, on average. "This reflects the fact that, once a tenant vacates a unit, landlords are generally free to increase asking rents to current market levels," the CMHC said."3 The trend of rent increases has been going on for the past two decades.
The Power Elite:
C. Wright Mills is an American sociologist. He published his work with the title "The Power Elite." In his book, he proves how the power elite or 1% monopolizes the US economy by electing and re-electing politicians to the US legislative bodies.
Thomas J. DiLorenzo, in this book, asserts that "An obvious consequence of this is that capitalist economy creates an interconnected community that constantly strives to supply all of us with the best goods and services at the lowest prices; it provides employment for people of all imaginable talents and abilities; it blows past subsistence economies...it creates wealth." PG 33
The whole essence of Dr. DiLorenzo is that the capitalist system provides low prices and creates wealth. Let's examine Dr. DiLorenzo's claim about society's low prices and wealth creation.
The economic pie is scarce. There is an English expression; money does not grow on a tree. Dr. DiLorenzo used Adam Smith's psychology of human beings as a self-interest entity. Therefore, humans compete against each other to acquire more of the limited economic pie.
In this competition to acquire wealth, it needs to create barriers to prevent others from gaining wealth, and others can grab more wealth from the economic pie. One barrier is the race issue. In 1991, I immigrated to Canada. I graduated from the University of Toronto in 2002 with a degree in sociology. In 2017, I gained employment because Canada has a labour shortage. 4
The US also has a severe issue of race. During the COVID-19 crisis, African-American faced a high unemployment rate compared to other races. 5
Documentary 13th, illustrates how African-Americans are demonized on the big screen as a rapist and evildoers.6 Later, in the 90s, politicians passed laws that put African-Americans behind bars.7
The author begins to assert that the excellent definition of capitalism is "give me that which I want, and I will give you that which you want." PG 34
The author defines the capitalist system in light of fair trade. The nature of the capitalist system is to compete with others and exploit others. If a country does not want to trade with the US, it will deploy someone like Smedley D. Butler, a US Marine, to extract the resources.
Another example is NAFTA. "The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was enacted in 1994 and created a free trade zone for Mexico, Canada, and the United States, is the most important feature in the U.S.-Mexico bilateral commercial relationship."8 Canada is the biggest loser of NAFTA, and the US has the upper hand.
Universal Healthcare:
Chapter 9 of the author begins to bash Canada's Universal Healthcare. He asserts that the hospitals are unsanitized.
If what the author says has merit, the Canadian population must be on the decline because people are going to the hospitals and they die from lack of hygiene.
American filmmaker Michael Moore made a documentary about the US healthcare system, "Sicko," that private insurance companies hired doctors to reject patients who were dying from cancer.
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Americans travelled to Canada to have surgeries and did not pay for them because they could not afford the medical bills in the US.9
Diving In:
I do not know the author. He has a natural right to express his views in any way. However, I found him to be sexist.
The author says on page 171, "Anyone can then walk into her assigned grocery." I checked the author on google, and he is a white man. I understood that he came from a privileged white family and did not experience hardship, which concludes this book review.
Endnote:
1History.com Editors. (2009, November 12). Slavery in America. History.com. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery
2Timmons, G. (2018, March 6). How slavery became the Economic Engine of the South. History.com. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.history.com/news/slavery-profitable-southern-economy#
3CBC/Radio Canada. (2023, January 26). Rent increased more than 18% last year for new tenants, new numbers show | CBC news. CBCnews. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cmhc-rent-report-1.6726764
4Government of Canada, S. C. (2007, September 7). Labour. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-402-x/2007/2621/ceb2621_000-eng.htm
5Report • By Elise Gould and Valerie Wilson • June 1. (n.d.). Black workers face two of the most lethal preexisting conditions for coronavirus-racism and economic inequality. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.epi.org/publication/black-workers-covid/
6NewOnNetflix. (2020, April 17). 13th | full feature | netflix. YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8&t=418s
7NewOnNetflix. (2020, April 17). 13th | full feature | netflix. YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8&t=418s
85. (n.d.). North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). International Trade Administration | Trade.gov. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.trade.gov/north-american-free-trade-agreement-nafta#:~:text=
9CBC/Radio Canada. (2020, June 14). Some living in U.S. eye canada for health care, but not everybody can get in | CBC News. CBCnews. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/americans-moving-healthcare-costs-medical-inadmissibility-1.5607594
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