In contrast to George F. Will, I continue to enjoy David Brooks. I appreciate his Hamiltonian conservatism and his commitment to moderation in our politics. His latest column is no exception. In contrast to Will’s goal of a political victory, Brooks’s goals is a governance victory. The question he poses to Republicans is not “How…
Capitalism
Capitalism, Community, and Citizenship
Sunday’s episode of This American Life provided plenty of food for thought. The hour was devoted to stories about various fights about extracting the natural gas from the Marcellus shale below Pennsylvania. Several points in the broadcast led me to reflect upon citizenship, capitalism, and community. During the first act of the program, a politician…
Capitalism and the Worth of the Individual
I’ve been thinking recently about how our capitalist economic system values individuals. The free enterprise system has been a great benefit to the United States in helping this nation accumulate unprecedented levels of wealth. But that system isn’t very good at distributing wealth equitably according to any standards other than the internal logic of the…