you're an imbecile for involving ethics and morals as reason for an economic system. we passed that long ago in our history.

I have not seen specific information from Ireland regarding laissez fair policies. Just doing a quick wikipedia search (and according to my own memory of history), it would appear that around 1840, Ireland suffered a horrific potato blight which caused a large amount of their population to starve. Are you blaming capitalism for the potato blight? Plagues such as this had been a problem in the past ages practically since men first began to sow seeds, would you also like to blame capitalism for the high rate of infant mortality, or maybe the large spread of typhoid?
Furthermore, Ireland was apparently under the British form of governance during this time, which would have been a monarchy or aristocracy-- a far cry from capitalism by any means. Basically, I really have no idea what you are talking about, because Ireland's woes are not the fault of capitalism by any justified standard. Not only were they not a capitalist country, but the cause of the hunger is already accounted for

good day,
Atlas

As a socialist, I can't agree with the concept that laissez-faire capitalism is right - I usually take the argument to the time of the Industrial Revolution, more specifically to the situation in the 1840s in Ireland, where laissez-faire capitalism allowed the country to starve for a long time.

Otherwise, without a focus on political issues (for my review would merely turn into a harsh criticism of your essay, and I find that political debating and arguing works better in a mutual arena of argument), well-written, but a fundamental focus on economic ideas which I would normally (and often successfully) argue against.

As I've said before, I don't think you can convincingly turn selfishness into a basis for objective morality. Or selflessness, for that matter. Either one self-destructs if you try to apply it consistently. You convincingly enough dealt with selflessness; selfishness can be dealt with by appealing to serial killers and bandits and such. The best you can do in this regard is say that sometimes selfish action is moral, sometimes it isn't, and then dismiss the whole egoist vs. altruist paradigm as ethically meaningless.