Was Steve Jobs a good, old-fashioned 'capitalist'?

Some are heralding the Apple co-founder's fortune as proof the capitalist system works. Not if that means comparing him to Goldman Sachs, say others

Wall Street could learn a few things from Steve Jobs' unrivaled success.
(Image credit: ROBERT GALBRAITH/Reuters/Corbis)

As the world mourns visionary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and reflects on his legacy, many are considering what Jobs' great business success and resulting multibillion-dollar fortune tell us about America's free-market economy. Indeed, some are calling the counterculture CEO, who cited LSD as a major influence and eschewed business suits for jeans and mock turtlenecks, a "hero of American capitalism." Do Jobs and Apple show that, financial crisis be damned, the capitalist system works?

Yes. Apple's success validates free markets: "The beauty of capitalism — the beauty of the iPhone world" — is that when you offer people "better stuff at better prices," you make profits, create jobs, and improve the world, says Kevin D. Williamson at National Review. Apple's success shows that the supposed "horror of putting profits over people" is a nonsensical idea. "Perhaps you do not think that Apple, or Goldman Sachs, or a professional sports enterprise, or an internet pornographer actually creates much social value; but markets are very democratic — everybody gets to decide for himself what he values."

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