Speaking in Florida, October 29: “Marriage in Crisis”

Capitalists no longer believe in capitalism.  One might argue that they never did, for the anti-capitalist motives of capitalists have been recognized since Adam Smith.  That's why he railed against government-protected privileges and monopolies, which in our day are called crony capitalism.  The free market revolution, then, was not so much the rise of a capitalist class as the rise of a certain economic belief among this rising class:  The belief that competition, rather than governmental favoritism and restraint of trade, is the best way to get ahead.

That belief is dying.  Why?  Probably because the dominant psychological and organizational type of capitalist is no longer the entrepreneur, bless him, but the bureaucrat.  That part isn’t surprising; the economies and technologies of scale require large organizations, and the managers in the second generation after the founding of a firm don’t burn with the founder’s fire.

What is surprising is that nowadays even those who do have entrepreneurial ability try to convert themselves into government dependents as quickly as they can.  Case in point:  Elon Musk.  Tesla Motors and Space X would be nothing without state patronage.  This is not free enterprise; it is merely socialism with outsourcing.