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The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute

Meltzer on Capitalism

03/12/2009

Capitalism recognizes that individual desires differ.

We cannot escape criminality by choosing Socialism,’ Allan H. Meltzer said in an AEI lecture this week. ‘Freedom allows people choices that violate someone’s idea of social norms or right conduct; Socialism restricts choice to those that officials permit. Capitalism accepts that some dislike the outcomes resulting from choice in a market economy. It does not seek utopia because it recognizes that individual tastes and desires differ.’