Capitalism equals freedom.
That is the overwhelming concensus of the political and economic leaders of the world.
Think about what words are associated with capitalism:
free markets
free enterprise
freedom of choice
Free, free, free.
Socialism, OTOH, is associated with terms like: government regulation, which is the opposite of these terms.
Thus if you love freedom then you must embrace capitalism.
If you like your political arguments on bumper-stickers and in 30-second TV commercials, and if you don't know much about history and don't think very deeply, then this is all you need. It's an increadibly powerful and convincing argument.
“History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom”
Milton Friedman
Yeh. History. That's a sticky one.
Almost everyone associates capitalism with markets. Even most leftists do. It seems self-evident.
But is it true?
Historian Fernand Braudel says capitalism and markets could equally well be conceived as polar opposites.
Markets are ways of exchanging goods through the medium of money.
Or to put it another way, 'C-M-C', commodity-money-commodity.
Capitalism is at its heart, the art of money getting more money.
Put another way, 'M-C-M'.
Capitalists tells us that a farmer or merchant buying and selling goods in your neighborhood is fundamentally equal to a Wall Street banker trading interest rate derivatives on an international exchange.
Yet you know this isn't true. It's an example of the difference between markets and capitalism.
I don't go so far as Braundel and say that capitalism and markets are opposites, but I do agree that they aren't the same thing. They exist independent of each other and only sometimes overlap.
Once you break the idea of markets from capitalism then the whole argument of capitalism equals freedom starts to fall apart.
Slavery and Capitalism
"Every man needs slaves like he needs clean air. To rule is to breathe, is it not?"
- Albert Camus
"The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave."
- Ayn Rand
" it is now firmly settled by the decisions of the highest court in the State, that Scott and his family upon their return were not free, but were, by the laws of Missouri, the property of the defendant"
- Chief Justice Taney, 1859
Nothing could be further from freedom than slavery. Yet as long as slavery has existed in this world, capitalist slave traders have been making money from it.
Ripping human beings from their world, taking away their freedom, and treating them like cattle, has been one of the most profitable enterprises ever created in the history of the world.
So why doesn't it exist today? It wasn't because it became unprofitable (as some claim). In every instance, abolition was fought tooth and nail by people defending "the sacred right of private property" (the term used by slave owners fighting efforts of progressives in France to outlaw slavery, 1794).
Instead, the odious practice of slavery was outlawed across the globe by the use of government regulation (that thing that is supposed to be the opposite of freedom), and often by force.
For instance, the "heroes" of the Alamo were slave owners fighting for the right to retain their property (i.e. slaves) against the government of Mexico, which had abolished slavery a few years before. It might be a reason why southern capitalists still celebrate the bravery of those Texans killed at the Alamo.
Nowhere was the institution of slavery so violently defended than in Haiti.
Over 100,000 former slaves died fighting for their freedom against European armies larger than what England sent against the rebellious American colonies a few years previously. (In contrast, 7,200 Americans died in our revolution.)
Wave after wave of French armies, then Spanish armies, then British armies, then French armies again were slaughtered by half-naked, half-starved slaves armed only with captured weapons. It was the only completely successful slave revolt in world history.
It is no coincidence that Britain outlawed the slave trade only 3 years after Haiti's independence. America followed the following year, and Spain (mostly) 3 years afterwards.
[note: Many of Haiti's gens de couleur fought and died during America's Revolution. America, OTOH, was hostile to Haiti's independence, and refused to recognize them for decades.]
What I find most interesting about the 13-year long Haitian Revolution was the behavior of the free people of color. In the best of times they weren't even second-class citizens, yet many of them fought on the side of the racist, white plantation owners who despised them.
Why? Because these colored capitalists were also slave owners, and they wanted to protect their property rights (i.e. slavery) more than they wanted liberty. It was only when the whites treated them like slaves that they joined with the rebellious slaves.
It is impossible to reconcile the concepts of capitalism being equal to freedom, with the historical fact of capitalists defending the institution of slavery.
One last note, slavery has been outlawed in every nation on earth at least a century ago, yet more people are enslaved today than at any other time in history.
Sadly, even Haiti, despite its history, has a slavery problem.
Free contracts?
One thing that gets asked over and over again was why did so many poor whites fight so hard for the south during the American civil war? Almost no one the front lines came from a wealthy plantation. Few were slave owners.
Yet they fought as hard as anyone.
One big reason is the horrible working conditions in the northern factories. Poor southerners didn't want any part of that. In fact, evidence shows that the conditions of the southern slave were "better than what was typically available to free urban laborers at the time."
Which isn't a defense of slavery, but a damnation of the northern capitalists.
Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty,
That I cannot be a slave.
- song by Lowell Mill Girls, 1836 strike
“[i]t is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.”
- Henry David Thoreau
Through a lot of suffering, a lot of struggle, and a lot of death, the workers of America have forced the capitalists to improve working conditions, but the lopsided power arrangement hasn't really changed.
Even today the boss can force you to piss in a cup on demand, or even manage your personal life by banning you from doing things like smoking. Working for a living may be a lot of things, but it isn't freedom.