Jerry Z. Mullerauthor of the classic , is my favorite intellectual historian. Obviously, I am not alone because Journal of Applied Corporate Finance reunited Five essays by Mullerthese are:
- The overlooked moral benefits of the market
- Capitalism and inequality
- Capitalism and nationalism
- The threat of democracy to capitalism
- Capitalism and the Jews revisited
All are excellent and accurate. Here is an extract from The overlooked advantages of the market (no withdrawal);
Adam Smith wrote that
It is not from the kindness of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we wait for our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-esteem, and never speak to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. No one, except the beggar, chooses to depend primarily on the benevolence of his fellow citizens.
This passage is almost invariably cited as an affirmation of the potential social efficacy of self-interest. But notice the force of his suggestion that dependence on the benevolence of others is morally degrading and, therefore, something to be avoided if possible. Thomas Carlyle – and later Marx and Engels – would deplore this system of mutual appeals to self-interest as proof of the tyranny of the “monetary bond.” But the flip side of cash is, above all, the freedom and self-determination that comes from having species. Second, the fact that money-based relationships do not involve the total subordination of one individual to the will of another represents a significant advance over the characteristically older and dominant forms of human relationships under slavery , serfdom or indentured servitude. Nor does the use of cash imply the subordination of the individual to the will of the state and its officials, one of the defining characteristics of socialism. This is why Hegel, who certainly appreciated the role of the state, insisted that supporting oneself by earning a living is one of the most important ways in which men feel themselves as as autonomous individuals. What Hegel called “the ethics of bourgeois society” includes a commitment to “the activity of providing for oneself through reason and work.”
