...[T]he answer to problems with the free market is not to reject economic liberty in favor of government control. The church has consistently rejected coercive systems of socialism and collectivism, because they violate inherent human rights to economic freedom and private property. When properly regulated, a free market can certainly foster greater productivity and prosperity. But, as the pope continually emphasizes, the essential element is genuine human virtue. The church has long taught that the value of any economic system rests on the personal virtue of the individuals who take part in it, and on the morality of their day-to-day decisions. Business can be a noble vocation, so long as those engaged in it also serve the common good, acting with a sense of generosity in addition to self-interest. ~ Cardinal Timothy Dolan I have long argued that the American experiment was built on a triad of liberty, law and virtue, and that the experiment would succeed only if all the elements were functioning in harmony. A chapter of a dormant book on which I was working has the following statement: In this construct, liberty is represented primarily by the freedom of the individual, the law – creation, enactment and enforcement -- is the domain of the state, and virtue is a function of shared values, demonstrated and fortified through voluntary associations – civil society. We devote much attention to liberty and the law, and their relationship to one another, in our public debates. We expect the law to act as a constraint on the excesses of liberty, and liberty to tame the potential for law to degrade into tyranny. James Wilson, American founder and one of the nation’s first associate Supreme Court justices, wrote, Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness. Virtue, however, is perhaps the most essential component of a healthy society because it speaks to the nature of man himself, and it is man’s nature which shapes the nature of law and liberty. Virtue cares for the needy and expands the hearts of the caregivers. Virtue fills the void between the selfishness of the individual and the coercion of the state, and gives neither a foothold. Virtue makes better people who, in turn, make better institutions. Virtue is the secret to our success as a constitutional republic, and the only way to preserve it. If our free market system is corrupt, our government burdensome, and our society depraved, it is because the institutions in our communities which instilled virtue have been marginalized or allowed to decay.
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 21:47:11 +0000