Senator Marco Rubio is no socialist, but he worries that American capitalism has gotten off track. Even conservative politicians are questioning the virtue of laissez-faire. These critics contend that free markets have a "solvent effect on traditional relationships, cultural norms, generational thinking," which turns liberty into license, and that Adam Smith's invisible hand is "self-defeating" because the strict conditions for coordinative commerce never hold in the real world. Now, however, religious conservatives are growing skeptical of markets-but that's because of their concerns for freedom and flourishing, not in spite of them. This article is an edited excerpt from Alexander William Salter's forthcoming book, The Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the Common Good (Catholic University of America Press, June 2023).ĭoes free enterprise support free societies? Generations of American conservatives, including many men and women of faith, have vigorously defended private property rights and freedom of contract.
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