Jonah Goldberg says of this essay:
If you missed this shockingly long essay in the Wall Street Journal by Nobel winner Edmund Phelps, print it out and save it. One day it will be useful to force your college-age kids to read it for deprogramming purposes. I think some folks at Tapped simply burst into flames when reading it.
I agree, except for calling it “shockingly long”.
I still haven’t read any Hyek (and yes, I know I should), but I’ve read Rand. Phelps put them in nice perspective for me:
We all feel good to see people freed to pursue their dreams. Yet Hayek and Ayn Rand went too far in taking such freedom to be an absolute, the consequences be damned. In judging whether a nation’s economic system is acceptable, its consequences for the prospects of the realization of people’s dreams matter, too. Since the economy is a system in which people interact, the endeavors of some may damage the prospects of others. So a persuasive justification of well-functioning capitalism must be grounded on its all its consequences, not just those called freedoms.