Name Me a Single Non-State Capitalist President

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Were any Presidents Free Market Capitalists?
Yes 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
No 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
Other (Explain) 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I Don't Know! 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
Show me the Results! 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
Total votes : 4

Master_Pedant
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13 Jun 2009, 12:28 am

After getting into a minature debate with a (I take) conservative Republican poster who views "state capitalism" as an "oxymoron" and Obama as a "statist" whoose goals are "inherently anti-capitalist", I'll ask this: were there any non-state capitalists who served as President?

Reagan, for the record, introduced quotas on the number of Japanese Car and Foreign Steel which could be imported to the United States. He also bailed out the S&L industry. The mere vastness of the defence department ensures massive money is pumped into R&D with privatized profits (i.e. the fruits of basic research are built on and sold by for-profit industry).

So name me one president who did not intervene in the economy to aid big buisnesses. Then you can call Obama's marginally more progressive form of Clintonian DLCism "radical anti-capitalism" and "statism".



Orwell
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13 Jun 2009, 12:38 am

The overwhelming majority of Presidents through America's history have been in favor of free markets, though from what you've described it seems the other person is one of those extremists who believe that the existence of a government is socialism.

For names of the more hard-core free-market Presidents, there's Jefferson, Jackson (both opposed the central bank), and Coolidge off the top of my head as Presidents who have a reputation of not having meddled in the economy.


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pakled
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13 Jun 2009, 11:36 am

Calvin Coolidge -

Part of the irony of your statement is that a President can only demonstrate power by using the Government (i.e, Statist power) means. So unless you actually don't do anything, you're promoting government power by using the Presidency...