Economy and Virtue

197 Pages·2004·0.41 MB·English

by  Dennis O'Keefe (Editor)

Economy and Virtue

Economy and Virtue
Essays on the Theme of Markets and Morality
edited by dennis o’keeffe
foreword by david willetts
The Institute of Economic Affairs
First published in Great Britain in 2004 by
The Institute of Economic Affairs
2 Lord North Street
Westminster
London sw1p 3lb
in association with Profi le Books Ltd
‘The Argument for Free Markets’ by Walter E. Williams
reprinted by permission of the Cato Institute
‘Character, Liberty and Social Structure’ by David Marsland
reprinted by courtesty of Society
All other material and this collection
copyright © The Institute of Economic Affairs 2004
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written
permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
isbn 0 255 36504 7
Many IEA publications are translated into languages other than English or
are reprinted. Permission to translate or to reprint should be sought from the
Director General at the address above.
Typeset in Stone by MacGuru Ltd
[email protected]
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Hobbs the Printers
CONTENTS
The authors 11
Foreword by David Willetts 16
Acknowledgements 20
Summary 21
1 Introduction 25
Dennis O’Keeffe
2 The argument for free markets: morality
versus effi ciency 34
Walter E. Williams
Introduction: freedom, sacrosanct persons and property 34
Widespread consensus that governments must not
sponsor murder does not obtain vis-à-vis government-
sponsored theft 35
Even in free societies like the USA the values of freedom
have today been in some degree eroded 36
It is basic values which bring economic effi ciency and
wealth, and not vice versa 36
Informal institutions are crucially important 37
Institutions and wealth 38
Natural resources and population size are not defi nitive
in the development of wealth 39
The intellectual defence of liberty demands a moral
rather than an economic argument 40
Demystifi cation of the state 41
Victims of wrong policy, visible and invisible 42
Opponents of government interventionism must be
made visible 43
Justice concerns processes, not results 46
In a free society income is earned through the provision
of goods and services 47
The vision of black markets 50
Conclusion 51
3 The morality of markets: taxation as a
Prisoner’s Dilemma 52
Christopher Badcock
Introduction 52
Axelrod’s computer games of iterated Prisoner’s
Dilemma 56
The question of taxation resembles a Prisoner’s Dilemma 61
Every social relationship is a Prisoner’s Dilemma and
mutual cooperation is the logic of the market 66
4 Selfi shness, exploitation and the profi t
motive 68
Antony Flew
Immoral capitalism: from Tawney to Ramsay MacDonald
to Einstein to Plant 68
Interested actions are not necessarily selfi sh 73
Aristotle’s critique of profi t 74
Aristotle’s errors on usury: unless people cease to wish to
purchase goods and services, abolishing money will
not make them less mercenary 79
The fi nal, fatal fl aw in the critique of market greed 84
5 Economic science and the morality of
capitalism 88
Israel M. Kirzner
Introduction 88
People think we have to tolerate immorality in order to
enjoy the advantages of capitalism 90
In at least one sense capitalism is ethically neutral 95
Why it is wrong to link free markets with greed:
a summary 97
6 Character, liberty and social structure 101
David Marsland
Introduction 101
Freedom and personal autonomy are core conditions of
full and genuine morality 102
The rule of law and limited government are crucial to
moral development 104
Ultra-socialist enemies of virtue 107
Pseudo-moralistic campaigning against the market 113
Socialism or virtue? 114
7 Below the angels: morality and capitalism 116
Arthur Shenfi eld
Introduction 116
Four allegations against capitalism 116
Inequality 118
Greed and selfi shness are not externally distinguishable
in market behaviour from altruism 122
In fact capitalism and the care for the poor and
unfortunate rose in tandem 123
Bourgeois, aristocratic and working-class virtues 128
The positive case for the morality of the free economy:
property and moral training 128
Forward to capitalism 137
8 Individual responsibility and competence 138
Peter King
Introduction 138
The structural thesis and the growth of welfare 138
Murray’s attack on the removal of responsibility 140
The wisdom of assuming that individuals are competent
and responsible 141
The aim is not censoriousness but the call to
responsibility 143
Communitarianism 144
Individualist responsibility 145
9 Markets, the Internet and morality 147
Sean Gabb
Introduction 147
What is the Internet? 147
The Internet and the moral order 149
An indirect source of moral improvement: the
attenuation of market imperfection 150
The morality of non-economic choice 155
The Internet as a moral force in the public sphere 156
The media reborn 158
A closing note in troubled times 160
Summary 160
10 Capitalism and corruption: the anatomy of
a myth 161
Dennis O’Keeffe
Introduction 161
Positive and normative economic theory 163
Marxist theory and practice have had disastrous effects 167
Anti-capitalists today do not seek to replace the whole
market economy 168
These moral critiques are not theorised in market terms,
merely alleged 169
A developed economy permits most people to pursue
economic advantage 172
Are markets morally neutral? 175
Why we need markets 178
Capitalism and peace 179
A brief religious note 181
About the IEA 184