Demo­cracy would not be the cap­it­al­ist’s first choice

Edward Luce (“Wall Street’s bar­gain with Trump”, Opin­ion, Janu­ary 25) stresses that cap­it­al­ism goes “hand in glove with the rule of law”. Not so, actu­ally. Busi­ness is far more inter­ested in the rule by law rather than the rule of law, which can be far messier and less pre­dict­able. Order and sta­bil­ity are far more highly prized.

Any party or ruler will­ing to repress uni­ons, depress the wages of work­ers, cut taxes on cap­ital and reduce reg­u­la­tion will find favour and fund­ing from the cap­it­al­ists. These are “good for busi­ness”.

Since author­it­ari­ans are more reli­able at deliv­er­ing these things, demo­cracy would not be a cap­it­al­ist’s first choice of gov­ern­ment.

Guy Wroble
Den­ver, CO, US