Robinson misunderstands limited liability. A key feature of incorporation is that non-employee stockholders have limited liability for actions made by employees. Why should the former, who have minimal control on how the corporation is run, be held personally responsible -- beyond the worth of their stock -- for the actions done wholly by others, employees? Even trying to make them responsible is a big conundrum. The ownership of publicly-traded stocks of big companies is ever-changing. (If non-employee stockholders are personally responsible, then why not lenders, too?)
Robinson abuses the concept of marginal utility. It was developed to explain an individual’s valuation, not different valuations by different persons like he does. He shows no understanding of marginal utility’s importance to market prices or the division of labor.
All but one of his “explanations” of why opponents of socialism are wrong (Chapter 12) are weak or wrong. His response to one alleged criticism of socialism -- that socialists are boring and humorless -- isn’t worth further comment.
He says critics say socialists dislike freedom, but he says “Democratic socialists believe deeply in freedom.” He adds, “capitalism actually restricts people’s freedom. We believe that the choices capitalism gives people -- obey your employer or starve to death -- are not really choices at all “ (234). Huh? They can’t seek a different job, become self-employed (be their own boss), find free food from a charity, or sponge off relatives or socialist friends? He characterizes “free market freedom” as “the freedom to die when your medical bill exceeds your paycheck” (245). Oh my, so simplistic and so wrong.
One “freedom” that Robinson doesn’t mention is that many socialists approve of is a government free to use coercion and bullying against other people they dislike. The freedoms and rights of people they dislike matter little or none to them. When they decide who gets elected, that’s the road to democratic mobocracy, or as Karl Marx said it, the dictatorship of the proletariat.
To be continued.
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