Like the American nation, the economic system known as capitalism is nearing a bicentennial: the 200th anniversary of the publication, in 1776, of the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith's classic work, The Wealth of Nations. In its 1,097 pages, the world found the first full description of a free economy—one in which, Smith prophesied, the drives of millions of people for personal profit, colliding against each other in an unfettered market, would produce "universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people." His book rapidly became a capitalist declaration of independence from the remaining shackles of feudalism and helped launch an economic revolution that has produced far more wealth than man had amassed in all previous history. Yet today the heirs of that revolution cannot celebrate in triumph. As capitalism approaches its bicentennial, it is beset by crisis. Increasingly, its supporters as well as its critics ask: Can capitalism survive?
The question is all the more urgent because the U.S., by far the most powerful capitalist economy, is recovering from its recent debilitating bout of inflationary recession and faces a particularly uncertain economic future. Production is beginning to rebound. Officially, the unemployment rate fell from 9.2% in May to 8.6% in June. But that was a statistical fluke, reflecting the imprecision of the Government's methods in measuring the number of students entering the job market for the summer. Thus the jobless rate could well go up again in the months ahead. Most experts expect the rate to stay above 8% for at least another year and not dip below 7% until 1977.
Bringing it down faster might well require surges in demand that would kick up a new, probably more devastating inflation. There is a gnawing fear that capitalism has no way to cure inflation except deep recession, and that any concerted attempt to lift an economy rapidly out of recession will only fan inflation.
The situation is more threatening in other major capitalist nations. Britain, with its inflation roaring at 28% and its pound scraping an alltime low of $2.19, totters on the edge of economic collapse. To fight severe inflation, the governments of Italy and Japan are putting their peoples through the worst recessions in a quarter-century. Inflation in Canada is currently running at 10.1% and in Australia at 17.5%. Even West Germany, which has the most successful postwar economy, is wrestling now with inflation and unemployment.
Inflationary recession is only the most imminent danger; there are longerrange, subtler perils too. Within many a capitalist country, the free market is being steadily hemmed in by the power of omnipresent government regulators, mass unions and giant corporations. Meanwhile, many intellectuals—and young people—contend that capitalism at best can build only a rich, not a just society. In January seven Nobel prizewinners, including Economists Gunnar Myrdal and Kenneth J. Arrow, signed a declaration condemning Western capitalism for bringing on a crisis by producing "primarily for corporate profit." They called for an intensive search for "alternatives to the prevailing Western economic systems."
Externally, the advanced capitalist societies confront a preindustrial world full of suspicion of "economic imperialism" and eager