Summary: Socialists fall prey to a common mistake. When defending the superiority of socialism over capitalism, they compare an idealized description of socialism, where people are imagined to behave and institutions to function as the socialist desires, to what they take to be a realistic depiction of capitalism. They compare an ideal to the real; big surprise; the ideal wins. But if we compare apples to apples, ideal capitalism to ideal socialism, and realistic capitalism to realistic socialism, capitalism “wins” hands down. For a complete list of speakers, topics, and dates of the Free Markets: The Ethical Economic Choice speaker series visit heritage.org/free-markets.
