Here is the letter News week:
Editor:
Alexander Salter argued that “we must adjust free enterprise to the common good.”Hilaire Belloc pointed the way to common-good capitalismMay 1St). To make the case, Hilaire Belloc posits the belief that the low prices of capitalist consumer goods are the result of what Mr. Salter calls “political externalities.” Although the exact nature of these externalities is unclear, larger, more efficient firms change the economic structure and tenor of society by displacing smaller enterprises and even gaining customers from larger firms. too bad.
But what evidence is there that most or most Americans would rather pay higher prices for consumer goods than have their communities populated by small or diversified merchants? nothing else. And not only is there no evidence to support the conclusion that these societal-level outcomes of free market capitalism are ‘negative externalities’, there is nothing to be ‘fixed’ by free enterprise. Common interest. Literally, all we have here is Mr. Salter’s proof that consumer choice is exactly what he and Belloc envision.
So-called “common-good capitalism” is, upon examination, not capitalism to promote the true common good, but rather the intervention of capitalism to advance one’s good.
best regard
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
And
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair in the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
