Capitalism has lacked a unifying public figure since Milton Friedman (admittedly, terribly wrong in his irredentist opposition to the gold standard, yet right about so many other things) left the building in 2006. Now, there is, at long last, a worthy candidate for Friedman’s rightful successor.
Meet Dr. Rainer Zitelmann, a Townhall columnist. As I wrote of Zitelmann in my review of his most recent book, “In Defense of Capitalism,” at Newsmax: “How few its (i.e. capitalism’s) defenders. I, co-founder and chairman of the … Capitalist League, now praise Dr. Rainer Zitelmann, a double Ph.D., historian, sociologist, author, and management consultant, as the reigning public intellectual champion of capitalism.”
The Capitalist League. founded in 2019, now with over 200,000+ Facebook followers, recently awarded Dr. Zitelmann its first Adam Smith Award. He earned this distinguished recognition of his work by his rigorous, tireless and effective advocacy of the true means toward, in the words of Adam Smith, “universal opulence.”
Capitalism.
As myself the lead co-author of the critically acclaimed Capitalist Manifesto: The End of Class Warfare, Toward Universal Affluence, of which publishing icon and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes said, “Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels have more than met their match with Benko and Collier. The Capitalist Manifesto not only devastatingly demolishes the false go of socialism but also makes the exciting and uplifting case for free markets,” I speak with some authority.
Now, FreedomFest, “the ultimate summit for liberty,” is featuring Zitelmann as a speaker.
"Rainer Zitelmann is a historian, sociologist and multiple bestselling author, whose books include Hitler’s National Socialism, The Power of Capitalism and In Defense of Capitalism. He published 27 books. His books have been translated into 30 languages," his bio reads. "In recent years, he has written articles and been the subject of interviews in leading media such as Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Le Monde, Corriere della Sera, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and numerous media in Latin America and Asia."
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High time! Among his many distinctions, Zitelmann recently wrote more columns than all of the rest of us Capitalist running dogs… combined on the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This included publication worldwide, across ten nations, with a lecture to the German parliament, on Smith. That was crowned by Zitelmann’s tour de force at The Wall Street Journal: “Adam Smith’s Solution to Poverty; Even in the 18th century he understood that only economic growth would improve living standards.”
Therein Zitelmann observed that "'Sympathy'—today we would call it empathy—was the central pillar of Smith’s moral philosophy. And Smith’s sympathy was, above all, for the working poor."
As he explained it, "a famous passage from 'The Wealth of Nations': 'No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of so much of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged.'"
"Today, these words are sometimes misinterpreted to claim that Smith advocated government-led redistribution of wealth. That wasn’t his intention, and he certainly wasn’t calling for social revolution. Poverty, according to Smith, wasn’t preordained, and above all, he didn’t trust government," he continued.
Thus, Zitelmann makes the moral as well as the utilitarian case for capitalism. We need more such! Now!
As Michael Lind wrote in his recent critical review at The New Statesman of John Norberg’s The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World, that we need more than Norberg’s “feeble defence of a system under attack.”
Zitelmann gives us that more. He argues with real power.
In concluding my review of Zitelmann’s In Defense of Capitalism, I wrote: “That great capitalist tool Steve Forbes says, of Zitelmann's latest work, ‘One of the most important books in decades defending capitalism. ...’ If you enjoy crushing your progressive frenemies' arguments, buy it, read it and give many copies. Welcome to the war of ideas. Zitelmann furnishes the ammo we need to win.”
The socialists tactically are way ahead of us. They actively support, even exalt, the champions of their myth.
They endlessly promote their public intellectuals such as Thomas Picketty. PIcketty became an international celebrity by (falsely) blaming capitalism for economic inequity. (Picketty cunningly blurred a distinction by terming it “inequality.”)
Rigorous economists have debunked Picketty’s arguments. Notwithstanding, there is an old saying in yellow journalism, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.” The left knows how to use a good story to great effect, irrespective of facts.
The right? Not so much.
With Zitelmann, we hit the jackpot. He provides capitalism with a powerful narrative based on real facts! Moreover, he is indefatigable and has generously invested a large part of his own small fortune to helping us know the truth that will make us free.
That said, nobody can do it alone. It behooves us to support our David, Rainer Zitelmann, in his attack on the giant Philistine Goliath, socialism.
The Capitalist League’s Adam Smith jury picked Zitelmann as the right’s counterpart to Picketty. We cheer the leaders of Freedomfest for giving him another platform.
What next? Capitalism is not a “self-licking ice cream cone.” To definitively win the argument against the socialists and mercantilists we must escalate our efforts.
How? Let us begin by uniting behind our champions, starting with Zitelmann. Let’s unite to banish, with finality, the spectre of socialism from the face of the Earth.
I was a Tea Party leader back when the Tea Party meant something. I was the co-emcee of the Boston Tea Party, in Boston Common, in 2009.
One of the Tea Party’s existential flaws was hinted at by its choice of the Gadsden “Don’t tread on me” flag.
Wrong symbol! To win the elusive decisive victory over socialism, all capitalist advoctes, from paleoconservatives, conservatives, neoconservatives, libertarians, classical liberals, ordoliberals and supply-side OGs (like me) must raise Ben Franklin’s revolutionary standard:
“Unite or Die.”
Let us now unite behind, and provide our platforms and generous resources to, thought leaders beginning with Rainer Zitelmann.
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