Sunday, October 01, 2006
A Brief Defense of Capitalism
I was reading The Devil in the White City when I stumled across this gem that I think sums up what I love about the capitalist system.
"[In the late 19th century], a thousand trains a day entered or left Chicago. Many of these trains brought single young women who had never even seen a city but now hoped to make one of the biggest and toughest their home. Jane Adams, the Urban reformer who founded Chicago's Hull House, wrote 'Never before in civilization have such numbers of young girls been suddenly released from the protection of the home and permitted to walk unattended upon the city streets and to work under alien roofs'"Some folks may think that sounds scary, but I think it sounds inspiring. The outcomes of the market process were not always pleasant, and many women faced injustice and mistreatment, but what other system of social organization guaranteed individuals this kind of of freedom?
