Faded Memories Are Leading to a Rejection of Free Markets (and Freedom of Speech, Religion, Conscience).

Faded Memories Are Leading to a Rejection of Free Markets

Monday, July 25, 2016
By Joe Carter

After almost a hundred years of seeing the effects of socialism and other government interventions in the market, American attitudes began to change in the 1980s and 1990s. The benefits of deregulation and privatization began to seem obvious and more people began to embrace free enterprise.

But as Daniel Yergin notes1, there is now a shift away from markets due partially to “fading memories of the old order—or no memories at all.”

Voters under 30 were either very small or not yet born when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in 1989. They have no memory of communism—what it meant in terms of poverty, thwarted opportunity and political repression. Closer to home, few Americans recall the likes of the now-defunct Civil Aeronautics Board, which not only set the price of an airline ticket but regulated the size of the in-flight sandwiches. What millennials do know is what happened in 2008—and for many it serves as an indictment of the market system.

Read more . . . 1

2Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy2Father Sirico argues that a free economy actually promotes charity, selflessness, and kindness, and why free-market capitalism is not only the best way to ensure individual success and national prosperity but is also the surest route to a moral and socially-just society.

Visit the official website at www.defendingthefreemarket.com3

Related posts:

1. Reflecting on Berlin
2. Milton’s Still The Man
3. ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’
4. Journal of Markets & Morality 13, no. 2 (Fall 2010)

​SOURCE: Acton Institute