Can Capitalism Survive?

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freedoms demonstrates a reluctance to interfere in the citizen's daily life.

In sharp contrast, the managed economies exist mostly in one-party states or under completely totalitarian regimes. Any government that tries to dictate almost every decision on production, prices and wages assumes an arbitrary power that would be impossible to reconcile with political freedom. In most managed economies, for example, a strike by workers is a crime against the state; it can hardly be prohibited without suppressing the right to advocate such a strike.

In sum, there is no alternative to capitalism that credibly promises both wealth and liberty. Despite its transitory woes and weaknesses, capitalism in the foreseeable future will not only survive but also stands to prosper and spread. Perhaps the most balanced judgment of Adam Smith's wondrous system is Winston Churchill's famous conclusion about democracy: It is the worst system—except for all those other systems that have been tried and failed.