Hillsdale College has launched a new online course, “Understanding Capitalism,” according to a community announcement.
The course, taught by Charles Steele, associate professor of economics, was released March 21. It examines what capitalism is, what it requires, why it leads to prosperity and human flourishing, and how to preserve it against encroaching bureaucratic regulations and calls for socialism.
“Under capitalism, man’s choices are rewarded or punished through profit or loss depending on the merit of his action,” said Jeremiah Regan, executive director of online learning. “It expresses the freedom and rationality of human nature in an economic system. Capitalism depends upon private property rights, the freedom of exchange and contract, sound money, and the rule of law, supported by citizen morality. Our natural rights-based capitalist system relies upon and encourages innovation and virtue along with economic prosperity.”
The course explores fundamental questions about capitalism: What is it? Can it be understood separately from the corrupt and perverse manifestations that many people criticize? Is it an amoral system? How has it produced prosperity, and is that prosperity purely economic?
“In this course we will study capitalism as an economic system,” Steele said. “We’ll see how this leads to economic growth with more and better goods and services, putting everything in terms of human behavior, what people actually do. Capitalism is an inquiry into human nature, the nature of society, that looks at the conditions under which humans can best flourish. It’s the system that made the prosperous world that we live in today.”
The course includes seven video lectures, which will be released to the general public each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, beginning March 21: Human Nature and the Cost of Choice; Profit, Loss, and the Economic Structure of Society; Production and the Division of Labor; Economies of Scale and Scope; Trade and Comparative Advantage; Technology and Resources; and Prosperity, Freedom, and Morality.
Hillsdale College held a premiere of the course in Sarasota, Fla. on March 20. The event featured a talk by Steele and a screening of the first lecture of the course.
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To watch the trailer and register for the course, go to online.hillsdale.edu/courses/register/capitalism.
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This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Hillsdale College launches online course ‘Understanding Capitalism’
