Why Capitalism?

[Amanojack]

@Michael J Green

De Jasay’s great metaphor - that the state’s interventions cause the muscles of voluntary capabilities of society to atrophy - supports Danny’s point that people are largely interested in increasing their material wealth. Without the state, this requires cooperation, possibly a strong family structure, etc. With a welfare state, (non-political) voluntary associations become less important, the family structure is less useful, etc., because people believe they can profit more through the redistributive arm of the state. Without the state, a mother is incentivized to marry a man for financial assistance; with the state providing assistance to single mothers, this incentive is diminished and the traditional family structure offers less utility

I raise a tangential issue in reply to this here.