Libertarians Should Not Indentify As Capitalists

==Summary== The existing clash has reduced due to a large area of agreement. My opponent's rebuttal, summarized, is: "My position is not that the libertarian should necessarily denounce Capitalism, as the word has different meanings and connotations with different audiences, merely that he himself should not identify as a supporter of Capitalism," because "Capitalism, as a word, has bad roots and means different things to different people. Rather than to clarify, it obfuscates. " First, there are situations within the context of recruitment in which the term capitalism has a vast array of libertarian associations which warrant its use. Second, the context of the debate is not limited to the recruitment of new libertarians. It extends outwards to all realms in which a libertarian may or may not choose to identify as a capitalist. ==Arguments== 1. A Rasmussen poll that didn't define capitalism found that "adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism" [1] (although it didn't give a statistic, the number is implied to be between 61% and 87%). Even more importantly, "Republicans - by an 11-to-1 margin - favor capitalism" [1]. Therefore, there is a target audience for libertarianism that loves the term capitalism, and using it would attract more supporters. There is also reason to avoid the terms "free market" and "free enterprise. " It is evident from polls that they imply a volley of government regulation. While 85% of American Democrats support Free Enterprise [3], "72% of Democratic voters say there is a need for more government regulation of big business" [2]. This overlap implies that the term Free Enterprise is not to be used with Democrats, for, in Ayn Rand's words, it is an anti-concept [4]. The term "free market" has the same problem [2]. "49% of Democrats" "favor a free market economy over a government-regulated one" [2], but the 72% statistic still stands. Lastly, because "two-thirds (65%) of voters agree, however, that government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors" [2], and because this statistic is even higher amongst Republicans [2], making the distinction between crony capitalism and libertarian capitalism would be a winning point for libertarianism. 2. There are other situations besides recruitment in which a libertarian may or may not choose to identify as a capitalist. This situations are part of the resolution, for the resolution does not limit the debate to recruitment. One such incidence is a poll. As in the Rasmussen poll, the term capitalism may be undefined intentionally, and the libertarian would still be forced to either identify as a capitalist or not. The libertarian may use the dictionary definition of capitalism, noting correctly that the terms "State Capitalism" and "Crony Capitalism" were not used, and identify as capitalist. Another incidence is a debate regarding the merits of capitalism. In the context of a debate, the resolution being "Capitalism is good," the free-market libertarian would side with and argue for the PRO side, seeing correctly that, unless capitalism is defined otherwise, the debate concerns the private ownership of capital. In doing so, the libertarian is a supporter of capitalism and identifies as a capitalist. ==Conclusion== Because there are strategic incidences, both in and out of recruitment, that suggest that libertarians should choose to identify as capitalists, the resolution is negated. Thank you. [1] . http://www.rasmussenreports.com... [2] . http://www.rasmussenreports.com... [3] . http://www.gallup.com... [4] . http://aynrandlexicon.com...