Capitalism as Creative Destruction

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, economic historian Amity Shlaes reviews H.W. Brands' American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism 1865-1900, arguing that "the lesson of the late 19th century is that genuine capitalism is a force of creative destruction":

One capitalist idea (the railroad, say) brutally supplants another (the shipping canal). Within a few generations—and in thoroughly democratic fashion—this supplanting knocks some families out of the top tier and elevates others to it. Some poor families vault to the middle class, others drop out. If Mr. Brands were right, and the "triumph of capitalism" had deadened democracy and created a permanent overclass, Forbes's 2010 list of billionaires would today be populated by Rockefellers, Morgans and Carnegies. The main legacy of titans, former or current, is that the innovations they support will produce social benefits, from the steel-making to the Internet.

Read the whole thing here. Shlaes discusses Franklin Roosevelt's economic legacy and the death of classical liberalism with Reason's Nick Gillespie right here.