FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH

Lest the reader wrongly assumes that I am a wholesale denier of legitimacy to capitalism, nothing could be farther from the truth. I do distinguish between good capitalism and bad capitalism, and no one in his own mind would disparage the former kind. On the other hand, the latter kind, based not on the value-producing industriousness of the bona fide entrepreneur, but on cynical financial manipulation, and bordering on outright fraud, is nothing short of reprehensible, and, apart from the perpetrator and his crowd, only someone very sick can actually welcome and applaud it.

In this connection, here is how I have commented on one celebrated remark about capitalism by that authentic connoisseur of capitalism Sir Winston Churchill, namely, this:

“Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.”

My comment was to the effect that the biggest problem of modern capitalism has been that too few people have enough respect for the horse in the field, while too many others are preoccupied with milking the cow in the barn, which allows the big bad predator to run amok, eventually destroying the farmhouse itself.…

Talking about the horse, let us hear from the horse’s mouth whether our admittedly skeptical reading of the Churchillian dictum can be further substantiated.

Who can be a greater authority on the subject of American Capitalism than the man voted the greatest President in the history of this citadel of international capitalism Abraham Lincoln, who offers us the following awfully current metaphor for crooked capitalist practices. The horse in this case is totally marginalized, the cow becomes the sheep, while the clever predator, in concert with other clever predators, arms himself with shears… et voilà!---

“It is an old maxim, and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people’s money being used to pay the fiddler, all this to settle a question in which the people have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel.” (From Mr. Lincoln’s first recorded Speech in Illinois Legislature, dating back to January 1837.)

There is an even more striking example of Lincoln’s invective against capitalism, where he sounds awfully like… Karl Marx!---

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” (From President Lincoln’s First Annual Message to Congress, December 3^rd, 1861.)

There are actually numerous anti-capitalist statements by Mr. Lincoln throughout his career, some of which have been fiercely disputed, with regard to their authenticity. But the two examples quoted here are authenticated beyond dispute, that is, unimpeachable, and they leave no doubt as to what this Greatest American President has to say about capitalism.