The global belief that Western economies represent free-market capitalism is one of the most consequential conceptual errors in modern economic thought. This paper demonstrates that the Western economic order is fundamentally statist, not capitalist. While retaining limited private property and market exchange, Western economies are defined by coercive taxation, permanent deficit spending, centralized monetary control, regulatory repression, and technocratic management. These features place them closer to socialism than to free-market capitalism. Drawing on the Scale of Statism and the broader Africonomics framework, this paper provides a principled structural analysis that distinguishes actual capitalism from statist systems. It exposes how state-managed economies have been falsely labeled “capitalist,” allowing governments to practice coercive and extractive governance while attributing systemic failures—inequality, instability, crises—to capitalism. This mislabeling has distorted economic scholarship, misdirected public debate, fueled affinity for socialism, and misled developing nations into adopting Western statist models. By grounding analysis in natural-moral law, Africonomics reveals that capitalism has not failed; it has been displaced by statism. Correctly identifying the Western order as statist is necessary for intellectual honesty, economic justice, and advancing genuinely free and prosperous societies.