The Ten Commandments of Capitalism

Those of us who are committed to a better world for all know that capitalism (i.e., a system of free enterprise based on private property and rule of law) is the only path forward.

In The Ten Commandments of Capitalism: The Secret Recipe for Equitable Prosperity, Ralph Benko provides a concrete set of guidelines to preserve and enhance capitalism for the sake of equitable prosperity.

A distinctive aspect of Benko’s advocacy of capitalist prosperity is his neutrality between the Scandinavian model, Ordoliberalism, on the one hand, and the Singaporean model, laissez-faire, on the other. Both models are systems of free enterprise based on private property and rule of law. Scandinavian nations famously feature a generous social insurance (such as health care coverage) and universal services (such as fully subsidized college education) system. Singapore, ranked first in the world on the economic freedom indices for decades now, is arguably the freest form of free enterprise actually existing in the contemporary world. But Benko rightly argues that whether or not we choose to provide citizens with generous public services, we must first be committed to the ongoing benefits of wealth creation. Poor, declining nations are not generous nations. Both the Nordic and Singaporean models of capitalism have been demonstrated, repeatedly, in practice to support the general welfare. Socialism, in the dozens of instances it has been tried, has degraded the general welfare.