Time: Sun Dec 14 03:26:15 1997 To: From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLS: economics and justice (fwd) Cc: Bcc: sls References: <snip> > > "The most important part of the case for economic freedom is > not its vaunted efficiency as a system for organizing > resources, not its dramatic success in promoting economic > growth, but rather its consistency with certain fundamental > moral principles of life itself. > > "I say 'the most important part of the case' for two > reasons. First, the significance I attach to those moral > principles would lead me to prefer the free enterprise system > even if it were demonstrably less efficient than alternative > systems, even if it were to produce a slower rate of economic > growth than systems of central direction and control. Second, > the great mass of the people of any country is never really > going to understand the purely economic workings of any > economic system, be it free enterprise or socialism. Hence, > most people are going to judge an economic system by its > consistency with their moral principles rather than by its > purely scientific operating characteristics. If economic > freedom survives in the years ahead, it will be only because > a majority of the people accept its basic morality. The > success of the system in bringing ever higher levels of > living will be no more persuasive in the future than it has > been in the past." > > - Benjamin Rogge > <snip>
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