What are the proper relationships between ethics, politics, and economics?
What are some of the leading objections to capitalism, and how can they be answered? These are the questions that first come to my mind as I approach this chapter. Peikoff answers some of these questions, and his answers vary in quality. I will discuss each of them in turn, and then point out what I take to be the most glaring error in Peikoff’s book. 1. What is capitalism? What are the facts of reality that lead us to claim that capitalism is the only moral economic system? Peikoff apparently thinks that political conclusions on economic questions may be reached a priori without looking at any empirical evidence produced by economics. Peikoff seems to think that we look at man’s nature to produce ethical maxims, then proceed from there to deduce the correct politics, and as a particular application of that politics, come up with the correct economic system. But this ignores some crucial facts of reality. Facts about economics play an important “feedback” role in our formulation of pro
