Resolved. Capitalism can be immoral!

Not only is there nothing new about that observation, it went to the heart of the last election. As most people know, the evil of capitalism resulted in the election of Barack Obama, despite McCain’s attempts at haranguing Wall Street tycoons and the usual Malefactors of Great Wealth.

As I keep saying, freedom includes the freedom to do unwise, unhealthy, and immoral things. Reckless sexual practices can kill people, and reckless financial practices can kill jobs, businesses, housing markets, and even economies.

Mitt Romney is facing criticism for claiming that he created 100,000 jobs, but being short on the proof, and claims are being made that he was actually one of those predatory capitalists who like to engulf and devour other companies simply because they are there for the taking. That Obama never created a job in his life (I mean a real job, not taxpayer-funded make-work) does not seem to matter. If this election pits Romney against Obama, the narrative will be along the lines of the goodly regulators versus the evil unregulated.

And I am squarely on the side of the evil unregulated, which does not matter, because I am not running for office. By saying that, I do not mean I am on the side of criminals.  Just as it is illegal to rape, it is also illegal to steal. But there is just as much right to run a company you created or acquired into the ground as there is to run your body into the ground. Neither squandering wealth nor squandering health is advisable, but both are better than the government getting into the harm prevention business, because it ends up creating worse harms than the harm it prevents.

But this observation is old. So old that I might as well repeat what I said shortly after the 2008 election:

…if there is one lesson I have learned from freedom, it’s that there are risks and downsides, and you have to take the good and the bad.

Economies do not always thrive. The American people are acting like a bunch of babies. (Or whiners as Phil Gramm said). Like gays clamoring to shut down the bathhouses once they got AIDS (which some did).

Hedonism, the irresponsible fast lane of freedom, is a high risk activity — whether economic, sexual, or chemical. You cannot have freedom without allowing it, and people are going to get hurt. Ditto, legal guns.

The problem is, no one wants to hear this.

Beyond that, the more the government intervenes (as they did in this economy), the greater the demand for more intervention when intervention fails, which it inevitably will.

True conservatism (at least, the old fashioned kind) involved allowing freedom and encouraging — not mandating — responsibility. It’s AYOR (at your own risk) stuff, and it’s not for children.

Failure in all these things has to be allowed, but the voters want safety nets and will not allow it.

There’s tragedy in this.

I’d hate to see the same tragedy repeat itself in this election, but that freedom thingie can be a hard sell, especially in hard times.

I see a special problem for Republicans who succumb to bashing “Wall Street” (which is of course a popular synonym for “capitalism”), and that is this:

The Democrats are much, much better at it.

Where it comes to all things regulation, and all things anti-capitalist, liberals have the moral authority. Republicans (and conservatives) do not, and never will. McCain looked like a pathetic old fool when he went after Wall Street in the last cycle, and it made me shudder when I saw it. (I knew he would lose.)

It does not matter what label you put on it. Many conservatives are legitimately concerned about morality, and favor harm prevention measures. But if preventing irresponsibility in the marketplace by government regulation is “conservative,” then the Democrats will by default be seen as more conservative. (Again, an old rant.)

The moralists should bear in mind that even if we accept that capitalism is immoral, history shows that Doing Something About It is more lethal.

MORE: Power Line looks at the allegations made against Mitt Romney, and finds nothing of consequence.

If this is really the best that Think Progress, Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, the Daily Kos, Rick Perry and the rest of the country’s know-nothings can come up with to smear Mitt Romney’s business career, they had better give it up before they make complete fools of themselves.

Especially Perry and Gingrich. It’s fascinating to see conservative Republicans running to the left in a Republican primary.

MORE: And here’s Rudy Giuliani (no friend of Romney, BTW):

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who recently called Mitt Romney “a man without a core,” defended the GOP front-runner’s record as an executive at Bain Capital, calling the attacks against him “ignorant and dumb.”

“I’m shocked at what they’re doing,” Giuliani said of Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry Thursday on “Fox and Friends.” “It’s ignorant and dumb. It’s building something we should be fighting in America, ignorance of the economic system, playing on the dumbest, most ridiculous ideas about how you grow jobs.”

Giuliani also said the attacks were “unfair and bad for the Republican Party.”

They’re great for the left, though. Expect them to be played and replayed by Team Obama.

MORE: Here’s Dan Riehl on the rank stupidity of playing into the hands of the left:

Democrats must be rejoicing. I knew the GOP was stupid, but I never thought they were stupid enough to commit suicide in their own primary. The GOP is all but giving this election to Obama by accomplishing everything Democrats could hope to accomplish in the general election.

And it’s not as if this is the first time.