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fubarobfusco comments on How should negative externalities be handled? (Warning: politics) - Less Wrong Discussion

-5 Post author: nigerweiss 08 May 2013 09:40PM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 09 May 2013 02:50:47AM *  13 points [-]

Something to keep in mind is that different people use the word "capitalism" to mean different things. Many libertarians and Objectivists say "capitalism" to mean a free-market economy with dramatically less regulation and taxation than we have today. However, many socialists and anarchists use "capitalism" to mean the sort of economy that we do have today, dominated by big businesses and finance capital. Others use expressions such as "mixed economy" and "crony capitalism" to imply various combinations of competitive free enterprise, regulation, and favoritism for the politically well-connected.

So some readers will take your comment as meaning that free enterprise requires state support; while others will take your comment as meaning that today's mixed economy requires state support.