Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism

by Arthur C. Brooks, Peter Wehner

Popular opinion would have us believe that America's free market system is driven by greed and materialism, resulting in gross inequalities of wealth, destruction of the environment, and other social ills. Even proponents of capitalism often refer to the free market as simply a 'lesser evil' whose faults are preferable to those of social democracy or communism. But what if the conventional understanding of capitalism as corrupt and unprincipled is wrong? What if the free market economy actually reinforces Christian values? In Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism, Arthur C. Brooks and Peter Wehner explore how America's system of democratic capitalism both depends upon and cultivates an intricate social web of families, churches, and communities. Far from oppressing and depriving individuals, the free market system uniquely enables Americans to exercise vocation and experience the dignity of self-sufficiency, all while contributing to the common good. The fruits of this system include the alleviation of poverty, better health, and greater access to education than at any other time in human history-but also a more significant prosperity: the flourishing of the human soul.

Genres: Politics, Economics, Nonfiction

97 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is easy today to produce an economic defense for capitalism, at least in its modern form with the carefully chosen welfare garb. But the moral critique has often been harder to counter. Wehner and Brooks tries to evolve a moral defense for capitalism. They begin by distilling morality and view of man into three perhaps over-simplified but still interesting categories based on the contention that our style of government is bound to derive from our view of man.

The first school with Rousseau and co as the board of directors is the grandiose, utopian view of man as malleable and infinitely noble and hence capable of creating an utopia of anarchy. Man needed no master in their perception.

The second school is the Hobbesian idea of man’s life as solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. This requires man to be controlled with every authority exercisable. It required an all powerful state.

The third of course is capitalism, which the authors say are based on a more rational assessment of human nature - of man as noble and self-interested at the same time. This school tries to move towards a form of authority that leaves men as free as possible and erecting only as many checks and balances as are unavoidable.

To Wehner and Brooks, all government failures are due to misreadings of human nature: by choosing the wrong basis for government, authoritarianism and communism and such were bound to fail. Capitalism, by getting the first step right, is haltingly on its way to perfection in their view. The argument above is only one among those presented in the book. While all the other standard tropes of arguments are there, only this seemed reasonably well argued to me. The low rating is entirely due to how the majority of the book turns into a theological argument based on biblical authority and the feeble attempt to construct a biblical sanction for the capitalist way of life.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly simple primer on economics in general and capitalism in particular. It’s brief and merely an introduction, but still provides more useful information than most college students seem to possess.

[Candice · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Wealth and Justice” is a great summary of the social value of the free-market system. The following were some of my favorite passages:

“Capitalism requires strong, vital, non-economic and non-political institutions – including the family, churches and other places of worship, civic associations, and schools – to complete it. Such institutions are necessary to allow capitalism to advance human progress.” – p. 10

“There is a certain irony in the fact that capitalism is best at doing what it is most often accused of doing worst: distributing wealth to people at every social stratum rather than simply to elites.” – p. 29

“Government cannot easily or effectively inculcate virtue in individuals – and even if it could, it would be ceding far too much power to the state to grant it the authority to mold human character.” – p. 37

[Vincent D. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mediocre

The book argues by setting up a series of phony straw man arguments against capitalism that it then easily demolishes. Social programs, like Medicare for all, offer an improvement on capitalism, not a repudiation of it. But the book treats socialism, communism and Marxism as indistinguishable.
Capitalism has many virtues, but it also has many vices. Without any restraint, companies that can, pollute the environment, exploit their workers, and emit greenhouse gases. The book doesn’t really acknowledge this, and the fact that capitalism requires restraint.
Finally, research since this book was written demonstrates that social democracies in Western Europe actually offer much greater opportunity for upward mobility than the purer capitalism in America.

[Aaron Sieben · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful primer on capitalism. It also untangles the various, but serious charges against capitalism reasonably well. Overall, it is a good place to start reading about the topic in a short amount of time.

[Walker Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

**1/2

[Steve Lacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wealth and Justice

Short and sweet and very powerful. His writing is consistently thoughtful, and fully accounts for the lessons learnable from history. Must read for Americans.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would go 3.5 stars if I could. This is more of an essay than a book, and it seems unfair to review it as a book. It raises good points but the engagement with religion, Christianity in particular, is superficial. I’d rather they left the biblical arguments out altogether or made it a full-throated theological tome. Not much in here with which to disagree, just wish the execution was stronger.