There has been a great deal of misunderstanding when it comes to capitalism these days due to widespread economic ignorance. Contempt for economic freedom is nothing new, but the attacks on capitalism increased ever since the economic meltdown. We’ve heard cries from the political left that capitalism doesn’t work, or needs massive government regulation. Perhaps this is just a ploy to throw the public’s attention off the government, which is the root cause of our economic woes. Like other government-created problems, the proposed solutions involve ever more bureaucratic control over our lives.

It was government intervention that caused the financial meltdown to begin with, along with out of control spending and borrowing. So what do the politicians say the answer is? More government control, spending and borrowing! Of course they call it “investing”, but with the inherent corruption and inefficiency of government, they cannot truly call it an investment since there is no return.

TIME magazine recently attacked capitalism in its”business roundtable” on the “future of capitalism.” TIME described its symposium: “With our economic world changing so rapidly, many writers and thinkers are looking at the roots of capitalism and how it must evolve. In the first of our series of Time 100 roundtables, we gathered a stellar cast of honorees to ponder the road ahead.”

In the interest of promoting a fair and balanced discussion on the topic, as always, this liberal media outfit assembled the following liberals: PBS host Tavis Smiley, blog founder Arianna Huffington, and soul singer John Legend. Stellar cast? I know Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek are both dead, but that was the best they could do?

Arianna Huffington offered the familiar capitalism is greed criticism. John Legend just gave a bunch of cliches about the need to even the playing field. Tavis Smiley believes that capitalism doesn’t work smoothly and not everyone is treated fairly by it.

Capitalism, broadly defined, is an economic system based on private ownership and control over of the means of production. Under laissez-faire capitalism, the government’s role is restricted to protecting the individual against fraud, theft and the initiation of physical force. America hasn’t had anything resembling true capitalism since before FDR.

Capitalism is denounced as synonymous with greed, but what economic system does not have greed? They all do. It’s not that greed is inherent to capitalism, it’s that greed is inherent to human beings. So that is not a valid argument. ‘Leveling the playing field’ is another false argument against capitalism. If anything, the government does the opposite when it teams-up with large businesses to drive out smaller competitors. Free markets work very smoothly when mostly left alone, so Tavis Smiley is wrong on that point. And what exactly does he mean by “treated fairly” as it relates to economic freedom?

The historical fact remains, despite all the weak criticisms, that capitalism has produced more prosperity for the greatest number of people compared to any other system of economic organization. No other system can unleash the greatest potential of a people than free markets. Think about all the inventions from automobiles, airplanes, telephones, to computers and refrigerators that came out of a mostly capitalist America. No other nation can match us for shear number of inventions and innovations.

It is amazing that bureaucrats who never so much as ran a lemonade stand, think they can run a business or the entire economy. It is a testimony to their arrogance and megalomania, that when things go wrong, they blame ‘capitalism’ not themselves. When the government acts as a third party by regulating goods and services, and taxes every transaction to death, the system starts to break down. People like Arianna Huffington fail to see this is as a weakening of capitalism and strengthening of socialism. It should be a huge warning sign when the government is the only sector of the economy not laying off people, but is hiring at an alarming rate.

The insufferable former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said, “I think we’ve had quite enough capitalism in the last eight years, and I think we need some regulation now.” What a ridiculous thing for Dean to say. Either he is totally ignorant or was lying for political gain.

The American economy is not under-regulated by any stretch of the imagination. There are 15 cabinet departments, of which 9 control various parts of the American economy. We have the Departments of: Transportation, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Education, Interior, Agriculture, Labor, and Energy. Not to mention the excessive number of federal agencies such as: the IRS, the FRB and FDIC, EPA, FDA, SEC, CFTC, NLRB, FTC, FCC, FERC, FEMA, FAA, CAA, INS, OHSA, CPSC, NHTSA, EEOC, BATF, DEA, NIH, and NASA.

There is even a government warning on your mattress tag. Virtually everything you own had to conform to numerous government regulations in its creation and distribution. And they have the nerve to say we are somehow under-regulated.

The free markets have been steadily becoming less and less free, while the politicians create greater turmoil in their misguided attempts to create economic ‘equality’. Capitalism is not to blame when government has been controlling and regulating everything for decades in this country. Now the government is pushing for cap and trade bills, which according to the Heritage Foundation, “are nothing short of a government re-engineering of the American economy. And S. 2191, with its aggressive targets to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use, would put the nation on a path of serious economic harm not justified by any benefits [emphasis added].” And they want to blame capitalism?