We will continue making the case for capitalism each and every day.
As conservatives, we can be prone to nostalgia. So when I find myself longing for the way things used to be, I go back and look at the way things really used to be — and I get some perspective. In 1950, a few years before National Review was founded, nearly two-thirds of the world population was living in extreme poverty. Today, it’s less than 10 percent. The dramatic increase in human living standards was not the result of a wizard waving a wand, but of more and more parts of the world discovering the magic of markets.
Since 1955, National Review has been making the case that when people are given the freedom to pursue their economic interests with minimal interference from the state, it will lead to a stronger and more prosperous nation — and a better world. While we have made a lot of progress since the days of the publication’s founding when we declared ourselves “irrevocably at war with communism,” there is no shortage of modern-day utopians who think that they can manipulate markets to serve their desired ends, and so our fight must go on. And that is why we are asking for your support.
Regular readers may have noticed that we are currently running a spring fundraiser. We hold these periodically because, though we are grateful for our subscription revenue and to our advertisers, that money ultimately is insufficient to cover all of our costs. So we rely on our generous readers to pitch in.
We wish we could have declared permanent victory for free market capitalism by now, but as Charlie reminded us the other day, the Left is only hibernating. Despite whatever you may hear about recriminations among the Democratic consultant class, for the past decade, the passion of the Democratic Party has come from the resurgent socialist coalition led by the likes of AOC and Bernie. Joe Biden ran as a moderate Democrat who touted decades of experience working with Republicans, but then ended up spending trillions of dollars and violating the Constitution in an attempt to unilaterally forgive hundreds of billions of dollars of student loans at the behest of the rabid progressives who actually run the party. Imagine if the party ever gains power with a true believer — who declares a climate emergency and imposes crippling environmental regulations while pursuing other policies to tighten the government’s grip on the economy.
At the same time, we can no longer take it for granted that everybody on the right side of the political spectrum is wholly in agreement when it comes to the importance of defending free enterprise. A combination of factors — among them open borders, the rise of woke corporations, fatigue with foreign policy commitments, the failures of the financial crisis and Covid, a general disdain for elites — have made a contingent on the right more open to questioning the benefits of globalization and capitalism. This sentiment has manifested most dramatically in this week’s tariff announcement, which we have criticized, given our belief that free trade has led to a dramatic increase in Americans’ standard of living by spurring growth and providing them with the opportunity to afford a diverse array of goods from around the world.
So, we will continue making the case for capitalism each and every day. And if you agree that a defense of free markets is important, we hope that you will consider a donation. Whatever you can spare — from $1 to $5,000 or more — every bit is appreciated. Thank you!
