I was wondering if anyone could give me any links to some good empirical evidence for the efficacy of capitalism. Don’t worry, I don’t doubt it in any way, and nor do I think that empirical evidence does anything for a logical argument. However, there are many who do; after presenting people with logical arguments, I am availed with “where is the evidence?”.
I’m sure you understand me.
If you need empirical evidence where we would be without capitalism have a look at the slums in Kalkutta or Cairo. Here you can study what despotism and central economic planning brings about in terms of efficacy.
Ok serious now, what evidence do you want to present other than that the median western poor has central heating, decent food, only one car, a fridge, a dish washer and cleary not much threat of ending his life or the life of his children through starvation? Compare that with the live people had in say communist russia and let them makr their own empirical “evidence”.
I usually like to stress the merits of freedom instead of capitalism. You typically get less resistance and you can more easily address questions like “If capitalism’s so great, then what about the Scandinavian countries?!”
If you use this site http://www.heritage.org/index/Ranking.aspx for “freedom” rankings and this site http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php for various metrics, you should find some nice correlations.
Hernando de Soto’s books are good on this.
Try comparing Singapore and Hong Kong with Cuba and North Korea.
Walter Block likes to cite “East Germany vs. West Germany” and “North Korea vs. South Korea” as it is a relatively controlled experiment(which is rare in economics). You see a situation where you have a group of people who are split down the middle, one goes with a capitalist system, one goes with a socialist system, and the capitalist system results in FAR better standards of living.