Mixed Economies

The needless worry in modern politics over the natures of capitalism and socialism could perhaps in part be abated if the concept of mixed economies was more mainstream.  A mixed economy combines elements of capitalism, or free market characteristics, with elements of socialism, or government-controlled/regulated characteristics.  Very rarely, if ever, has a historical government been solely capitalistic or socialistic in the sense that seems to be commonly meant by the words, as the presence of any level of government regulation dilutes a purely free market and any degree private property ownership or economic freedom dilutes the purest form of socialism.  Terror over the supposedly inherent injustices of either major economic system keeps the masses railing against the whole of capitalism and socialism when they might be contradicting themselves in doing so.

America itself has a mixed economy, although capitalists and socialists like to exaggerate the influence of the kind of economy they do not think has moral superiority over the other.  Now, if tyranny and exploitation are the concerns that drive people to fallaciously believe that either capitalism or socialism is truly obligatory, they have ignored the vital fact that both could be implemented in predatory, shackling ways.  Slavery to a purely free market consisting of greed-driven imbeciles and slavery to a government that redistributes wealth without consent (except in the case of just legal penalties involving financial damages) still reduce down to a form of involuntary slavery to financial systems being used in abusive ways.

Mixed economies can prevent some of these abuses of capitalism and socialism alike.  However, not one broad economic component or the other has some special status that makes it Biblically prescribed or deserving of automatic condemnation.  What matters is how they are structured and what the motives of the participants are.  Apart from this, there could be nothing intrinsically immoral about either basic economic system unless there was something morally wrong about mere freedom or government presence!  Within a Biblical framework, there is not anything wrong with either freedom or government by default, even if the prescribed allowances differ very sharply from the kind of freedom and governments condemned by Christian morality.

Since utilitarian concerns by logical necessity literally have nothing to do with whether something is actually right or wrong (if an act or motive is immoral, no amount of resulting benefits can change that), historical "trends," both those evidentially supported by actual records and those merely assumed to have occurred, are of no ultimate significance.  However, capitalism and socialism could easily lead to the deaths of numerous people if applied in certain ways.  Neither system is incapable of being hijacked for the sake of tyrannical leaders and neither system is incapable of functioning smoothly without exploitation.  Rabid, assumption-diseased conservatives and liberals are too focused on maintaining the party status quo to bother with the level philosophical honesty needed to admit this.

To accept a mixed economy, though, is to accept this fact on some level even if one has never thoroughly pinpointed the different components of the American economy (or that of some other country with a mixed economy).  There is a vast difference between different forms of the same general economic structure, and rationality is all it takes to see that some aspects of these differing structures are in fact compatible with each other after all.  It still might take a great deal of verbal or ideological force to get people already living under mixed economies to see that they probably approve of combining capitalism and socialism.  Regardless, despite the closed eyes, every minor economic freedom for buyers and sellers to connect as desired contradicts pure socialism, and every minor government intervention in an economy (including sending stimulus checks or bailing out an industry) contradicts pure capitalism.