Issues 2012 | An Audacious Promise: The Moral Case for Capitalism

Issues 2012 | An Audacious Promise: The Moral Case for Capitalism: But capitalism is part of a larger set of social institutions that has another justification for itself than increasing material prosperity, as important as that is. And that is its presumption of the dignity and preciousness of each individual and the respect that that demands. Capitalism assumes that each of us is a free moral agent, capable of leading his own life, of holding his head up, not begging leave or permission before he acts, not subject to correction from his superiors: a citizen, not a subject. Capitalism does not suppose that we are infallible; on the contrary, it is because no one is infallible that capitalism denies any of us absolute authority over others’ lives. It assumes only that as free moral agents, each of us has authority over himself and that each of us is sovereign over his own life.