Capitalism is a bad name for a good thing. For all its flaws, our economic system fosters creativity, freedom and innovation: happiness as well as prosperity. Global trade lets risk-takers find new customers and suppliers, benefiting both and pulling a billion people out of poverty in the past 25 years. It can do the same again.

We should admire this, not abhor it, particularly given the alternatives. The main one is socialism, which uses state power to counteract market signals. Applied widely, that requires enforcement: prohibitions, rationing, confiscation and, if necessary, imprisonment. It has succeeded nowhere, and failed at a terrible cost.

Moreover, most people like choosing how to spend their money, which is the central principle of our economic system. We can buy things,