资本主义定义的根本在于"私有制"。《韦氏词典》(Merriam-Webster)将资本主义定义为"一种以资本品的私人或公司所有制为特征的经济制度"。诺贝尔经济学奖得主米尔顿·弗里德曼(Milton Friedman)把资本主义描述为一种通过自愿交换和自由私营企业交换经济组织社会的运行模式。小说家兼哲学家安·兰德(Ayn Rand)认为,在资本主义之下,一切财产都归私人所有。同样,经济学家乔治·赖斯曼(George Reisman)也确认,资本主义是一种以私有制为基础的社会制度。《大英百科全书》给出的定义是:"资本主义,又称自由市场经济或自由企业经济:自封建制度瓦解以来在西方世界占主导地位的经济制度,其中大部分生产资料为私人所有,生产主要通过市场运作来引导,收入也主要通过市场运作来分配。"汽车工业或金融机构等生产资料由公众或国家所有,与资本主义的基础直接相悖。《钱伯斯21世纪词典》(Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)在对资本主义的定义中明确排斥国家所有制,将其界定为"一种基于企业、工厂和运输服务等私人而非国家所有,并存在自由竞争和盈利的经济制度"。在资本主义社会中,国家的作用更多体现在对产业的监管上,而非拥有产业。政府干预、持有部分产业或许有助于稳定动荡的经济,但从资本主义的角度看,这并不是一种正当的举措。相反,这恰恰暴露出资本主义理论的一个明显缺陷:它只允许一种所有制形式,即私有制。

At the root of the definition of capitalism is “private ownership.” In Merriam-Webster dictionary, capitalism is defined as “an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods.” Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, characterized capitalism as a working model of a society organized through voluntary exchange and free private enterprise exchange economy121. According to novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, all property is privately owned under capitalism121. By the same token, economist George Reisman confirms the fact that capitalism is a social system based on private ownership122. Encyclopedia Britannica has the following definition: “capitalism, also called free market economy, or free enterprise economy: economic system, dominant in the Western world since the breakup of feudalism, in which most of the means of production are privately owned and production is guided and income distributed largely through the operation of markets.” Public or state ownership of the means of production such as auto industry or financial institutions is in direct conflict of the foundation of capitalism. The Chambers 21st Century Dictionary explicitly rejects state ownership in its definition of capitalism as “an economic system based on private, rather than state, ownership of businesses, factories, and transport services, etc., with free competition and profit-making.” The role of the state in a capitalist society is more applicable to regulations of industry than owning it. The fact that government intervention to own part of the industry may lead to the stabilization of a turbulent economy does not make this intervention a valid move from the perspective of capitalism. On the contrary, this reveals a notable defect in the theory of capitalism which allows only one form of ownership, that is, the private ownership.

当金融与经济危机发展到国家不得不介入并接管部分陷入困境的机构，以防止经济全面崩溃的地步时，资本主义作为一种制度的处境就值得怀疑了。由此出现了一个两难困境。如果听任资本主义依照其自身的理论与原则运行，即自由市场、自由企业和自我维持，那么金融机构的崩溃以及随之而来的整个经济体系的失灵就可能不可避免。如果政府进行干预，将私有所有权转为国家与公共所有，那么资本主义制度的根基便岌岌可危。

When financial and economic crisis reaches a point where the state interferes and takes over some of the failing institutions to prevent a wide-scale collapse of the economy, then the plight of capitalism as a system is questionable. The following dilemma emerges. If capitalism is left to operate under its own theories and principles of free market, free enterprise, and self-maintenance, then a collapse of the financial institutions followed by a failure of the entire economic system may become inevitable. If the government interferes and transfers the private ownership to state and public ownership, then the foundation of the system of capitalism is in jeopardy.

美联储主席伯南克清楚地指出了资本主义的困境，他说："如果贝尔斯登被允许倒闭，违约的不利影响将不会局限于金融体系，而会通过其对资产价值和信贷可得性的影响，广泛波及实体经济"47。

Federal Reserve chief Bernanke clearly identified the dilemma of capitalism when he said, “If Bear Stearns had been allowed to fail, the adverse impact of a default would not have been confined to the financial system but would have been felt broadly in the real economy through its effects on asset values and credit availability”47.

在最近的一次金融危机中,美国政府接管了多个行业和金融机构的所有权。它接管了大型抵押贷款公司房利美(Fannie Mae)和房地美(Freddie Mac)的控制权。此次接管行动被描述为“数十年来对私营金融市场最为广泛的政府干预之一”[124],并且可能“成为有史以来针对私营公司的规模最大、代价最高的政府救助”[125]。由于未偿还的抵押贷款支持证券超过5万亿美元,这两家公司一旦倒闭,将对住房经济、美国经济乃至世界经济造成灾难性的后果[126]。

In the most recent financial crisis, the US government took over the ownership of several industries and financial institutions. It took over control of giant mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The takeover action has been described as “one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in decades,”124 and one that “could turn into the biggest and costliest government bailout ever of private companies”125. With over $5 trillion outstanding mortgage backed securities, the failure of these companies would have been disastrous for the housing economy, the American economy, and the world economy126.

美国政府以850亿美元的交易接管了全球最大的保险公司之一美国国际集团（AIG）的控制权，这表明其对该公司倒闭可能给金融体系带来的危险深感忧虑。此次接管使政府掌握了一家私营公司的控制权，这在资本主义世界的发展史上具有里程碑意义。

The US government seized control of American International Group Inc (AIG), one of the world’s biggest insurers, in an $85 billion deal that signaled the intensity of its concerns about the danger a collapse could pose to the financial system123. This takeover puts the government in control of a private company, which marks a historic development in the world of capitalism.

政府将其财产所有权扩展到了汽车行业。在破产法庭上就陷入困境的汽车行业的命运进行协商之后,美国政府获得了通用汽车60%的股份以及克莱斯勒近10%的股份。接管汽车行业的理由与收购金融机构的理由相同:避免对美国经济和世界经济造成灾难。

The government extended its property ownership to the auto industry. After negotiating the fate of the failing auto industry in bankruptcy courts, the US government acquired 60% of GM shares and almost 10% of Chrysler. The pretext for the takeover of the auto industry is the same as the pretext for acquiring financial institutions: avoid disaster to the American economy and the world economy.

如果说金融危机证明了什么重要的东西，那便是：仅靠个人和企业的私有制，无法维持经济的稳定。单一的私有制会造就一种单极的经济结构，这种结构必然因自身的重量而崩溃。当经济规模膨胀到极其庞大时，这一点就更加明显，其重量已大到无法依靠单一支点支撑。为了防止全面崩溃，各国政府纷纷以另外两个支点来支撑这一结构：国家所有制和公有制。从本质上说，资本主义就是一种单极的经济结构（只有一个支点的结构）。讽刺的是，资本主义所营造的环境，使经济规模以极快的速度增长。结果，资本主义的危机持续爆发，威胁着资本主义经济从内部崩塌。

If the financial crisis had proved anything of significance, it proved that private ownership of individuals and enterprises cannot sustain the economic stability by itself. Private ownership alone creates a unipolar economic structure which is bound to fail as a result of its own weight. This becomes more evident as the economy grows to virtually large sizes and its weight becomes too heavy to survive on a single pole. In order to prevent a total collapse, the governments rush to support the structure with two additional poles: state and public ownership. Capitalism, essentially, is a unipolar economic structure (a structure with a single pole). The irony is that capitalism creates an environment where the size of the economy grows at a very rapid rate. As a result, the crisis of capitalism continues to explode, threatening the capitalist economies to implode from within.

零星地在私有制之外增加国家所有制和公有制，只能在短期内见效，无法阻止全面崩溃。原因在于，国家所有制是在危机压力下被引入经济体系的，而不是出于一个深思熟虑的战略，即对国家和公共所有某些经济部门的必要性与重要性的认识。在危机压力下，国家被迫部分或全部占有某一经济部门，而对这一举措几乎没有任何理论或意识形态上的依据。对某一经济部门的国有化使经济体系偏离了其正常轨道，却没有为经济界定一条新的发展道路或方向。最终的结果是一个没有明确特征的经济：既不是资本主义，也不是社会主义。它同样也不是伊斯兰的，这将在本书的下一部分加以说明。

The sporadic augmentation of private ownership with state and public ownership can prove effective only for a short period of time. This will not prevent a total collapse. The reason is that state ownership is added to the system under the pressure of the crisis and not as a result of a well-thought strategy which reveals the necessity and importance of state and public ownership of certain segments of the economy. Under the pressure of the crisis, the state is forced to partially or completely own a segment of the economy without the least theoretical or ideological justification of the move. The nationalization of a particular segment of the economy pushes the economic system away from its regular course without defining a new path or course for the economy to pursue. The end result is an economy without a well-defined character: neither capitalism nor socialism. It is not Islamic either, as will be explained in the next part of this book.

为了历史参考，值得注意的是，苏联社会主义在农业领域的集体农庄中引入私人所有制时，也出现了类似的偏离其正常轨道的情况。这一做法是在斯大林晚期和赫鲁晓夫时期推行的，旨在提高农民的生产积极性，避免出现严重的粮食短缺。在戈尔巴乔夫的改革（perestroika）计划下，又在这一方向上推行了更多改革。这里的论点不在于这些调整和改革是否有用，而在于：这构成了对经济制度原有轨道的重大偏离。此类调整会使该制度丧失其主要特征。在旧苏联和东欧国家，社会主义制度最终彻底失败。其中一个重要原因，就是偏离了其正常的运行方向。

For the sake of historical reference, it is interesting to note that Soviet socialism experienced similar deviation from its normal course when private ownership was introduced to the collective farms within the agricultural industry. This was introduced during the late Stalin and Khrushchev eras to increase the productivity of farmers and avoid a serious shortage of food supplies. More reforms in this direction were introduced under the Gorbachev perestroika plans. The argument here is not whether these modifications and reforms are useful or not; the main argument is that this constitutes a major deviation from the original course of the economic system. Such modifications cause the system to lose its main characteristic. Socialism as a system failed altogether in the old Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe countries. One major reason for the failure was the deviation from its normal course of action.

同理,今天的资本主义也面临着迫切的需要:改变其路线、调整其行动方针,在体系中引入国家所有制和公共所有制,尽管这种引入是非系统性的。自由市场的规则已不再是唯一支配财富流动和商品与服务生产的规则。在政府对经济进行零星干预之后,相对稀缺原则和价格机制趋于模糊、变得不清晰。资本主义经济长期以来的特征,尤其是增长与可预测性,由于在支配自由市场经济的公式中加入了新的主观因素,已无法维持。如今,在房地产行业,自由市场的规则指向一个方向,而政府对主要抵押贷款公司的所有权却迫使房地产价格指向另一个方向。

By the same token, capitalism today suffers from the urgent need to change its route and modify its course of action by introducing state and public ownership to the system, although in a nonsystematic manner. The rules of the free market are no longer the only rules that control the flow of wealth and the production of goods and services. The principles of relative scarcity and the price mechanism tend to blur and become vague in the wake of government sporadic intervention in the economy. The long-lived characteristics of capitalist economy, especially growth and predictability, can no longer be sustained due to the inclusion of new subjective factors in the formulas governing free market economy. Today, free market rules point to one direction in the real estate industry, while the government ownership of major mortgage companies force the prices in the real estate to point in another direction.

总而言之,资本主义经济失败的两大主要标志是:在实体经济之上建立起虚拟经济,以及通过在私有制之外引入国有和公有制而偏离自由市场的规则。虚拟经济在经济中制造了一种假象,使财富总量看起来远远大于其真实价值。这种假象之所以得以形成,是因为股票市场交易利用了事物的相对价值,允许货币通过利息/高利贷增长,使货币脱离金本位,并使货币与一个国家的经济实力脱钩。虚拟经济必然会崩溃,并回归经济的正常价值。

In summary, the two major signs of failure of the capitalist economy are the creation of virtual economy on top of the real economy and the deviation from the rules of free market by introducing state and public ownership alongside the private ownership. Virtual economy creates an illusion in the economy which allows the total wealth to appear much larger than its real worth. This illusion was made possible by the stock market trades, which exploit the relative values of things, by allowing money to grow through interest/usury, by detaching money from the gold base, and by disassociating the money from the economic strength of a country. The virtual economy is bound to crash and return to the normal values of the economy.

国家所有制的引入会导致自由市场规则的混乱，并严重偏离资本主义原有的发展轨道。

The introduction of state ownership leads to the confusion of the free market rules and to a serious deviation from the original course of capitalism.