Reviews for The capitalist state

The average rating for The capitalist state based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-01-06 00:00:00 Christie Chase This one took me about 5 months to plough through, but it was well worth the effort. Bernstein writes a very well-researched argument about why capitalism is successful and why communism and statism are miserable failures. He argues his case without too much emotion, which helps his credibility, but really, any idiot could look at history and see that communism/statism/socialism are the best ways to crash your economy and make your people miserable. The most incredible thing is that despite history's glaring examples with zero exceptions to the rules, people in power continue to be ostriches about the facts. (I particularly liked Bernstein's examples of Sweden and Hong Kong to illustrate different points in the spectrum). I have never understood people's insisting that socialism is superior to capitalism, and it's clear that Bernstein has no patience for it either. I'd written a much longer review with favorite quotes and so forth, but it got deleted, and I can't be bothered to write another one. Though the material is heavy, it is readable. I am no economist, and the reading was perfectly easy to understand. Still, there's a lot to chew on here. I spent probably about 10 actual days reading it, but I spent a lot more processing. One quote I loved: "To the degree that men of physical force control a political-economic system, to that degree the men of creative mind power are shackled. To that same degree, then, men should expect the process of wealth creation to be curtailed. If governmental policy disallows the cause of wealth, then it ipso facto eliminates the effect." There were several portions of this book that were commanding and compelling, but nothing gripped me as tightly as did the appendix. It was absolutely riveting - I could not put it down!

Review # 2 was written on 2011-12-20 00:00:00 Ronald Parker ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ COMMUNISM FTW☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭ ☭