ABSTRACT
A serious investigation of the connection between capitalism and growth is as much an ethical inquiry as was economists' investigation of efficiency, and so it will also involve an appeal to values. Capitalism gives free rein to that "entrepreneurial spirit" that, in seeking out and transforming into reality new ideas for products and technologies, relentlessly stimulates the economy to innovative growth. It is argued that capitalists will take more risks than workers, because capitalists can diversify their risks, whereas workers cannot. In effect, risk will be socialized even further under Economic Democracy than under capitalism. Capitalism not only is structured so as to allow investors to keep risks down but also provides a positive incentive that seems to be lacking in Economic Democracy: the possibility of making a killing, of seeing one's investment double, triple, skyrocket in value. The socialism of Economic Democracy will give far more control to local communities than can the capitalism of Laissez Faire.
