Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Bradley J. Birzer — How Socialism Fails

In his latest article, Bradley J. Birzer, the conservative director of the American Studies Program at Hillsdale College reviews the book "The End of Socialism" by James R. Otteson. 
Adam Smith / Wikimedia Commons
Adam Smith / Wikimedia Commons

Asserts the conservative writer. From The American Conservative: "James R. Otteson, the Thomas W. Smith Presidential Chair in Business Ethics at Wake Forest University, possesses one of the greatest minds in defense of classical liberalism in the modern era. I say that as a friend but even more as an admirer. He has authored two definitive works on Adam Smith, a clear rebuttal of the ethics of Peter Singer, and now a crucial attack on the “near-socialist” theories so pervasive throughout the world today."
He continues: "Socialism not only fails to work in reality, notes Otteson, it is also malicious in its ethics and morality—even if most of its current adherents believe themselves humane and well-intentioned. At its core, “socialism is a difficult and costly system of political economy that the specific conceptions of its moral values do not justify.” This, he continues, “constitutes the end of socialism, then, in both senses of the word end: an attempt to implement it will inevitably end in heavy costs to its community, and the philosophical case for socialism ends in failure.”"