The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality

by Ludwig von Mises

Overview

Mises turned his attention to one of the great puzzles of all time: discovering why the intellectuals hate capitalism. Theresult is this socio-psycho-cultural analysis informed by economic theory. Mises explores answers from a wide variety of angles, and discusses the nature of academic institutions, popular culture, and how vices like jealousy and envy affect theory. All play a role in preventing people from seeing the self-evident benefits of economic freedom relative to controls. His comments on the resentment of the intellectuals cut very deeply. Mises shrewdly teases the anti-capitalist bias out of contemporary fiction and popular culture generally. In the course of his narrative, he explains aspects of the market that have generally eluded even its defenders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684113415
Publisher:	BNP
Publication date:	05/08/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	122
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Table of Contents

Preface ix Introduction xi

CHAPTER 1 The Social Characteristics of Capitalism and the Psychological Causes of Its Vilification 1
1 The Sovereign Consumer 1
2 The Urge for Economic Betterment 2
3 Status Society and Capitalism 3
4 The Resentment of Frustrated Ambition 7
5 The Resentment of the Intellectuals 9
6 The Anti-capitalistic Bias of American Intellectuals 11
7 The Resentment of the White Collar Workers 13
8 The Resentment of the “Cousins” 15
9 The Communism of Broadway and Hollywood 18

CHAPTER 2 The Ordinary Man’s Social Philosophy 21
1 Capitalism as It Is and as It Is Seen by the Common Man 21
2 The Anti-capitalistic Front 26

CHAPTER 3 Literature under Capitalism 29
1 The Market for Literary Products 29
2 Success on the Book Market 30
3 Remarks about the Detective Stories 31
4 Freedom of the Press 33
5 The Bigotry of the Literati 35
6 The “Social” Novels and Plays 40

CHAPTER 4 The Noneconomic Objections to Capitalism 44
1 The Argument of Happiness 44
2 Materialism 45
3 Injustice 48
4 The “Bourgeois Prejudice” for Liberty 54
5 Liberty and Western Civilization 59

CHAPTER 5 “Anticommunism” versus Capitalism 64

Index 69