David, I appreciate your sentiments concerning social justice, but I feel an important point was missed in the essay you offered.
I think a key element of this protestant ethic was an internalized moral code that made bankruptcy unthinkable and honesty and trust in contractual dealings and fairness. Those things made capitalism successful more than any inherent "god rewards faithfulness with wealth" type of ideological shift. Which is what makes the erosion of those values such a fascinating phenomenon today, as it's coupled with the "moral hazard" of people blithely walking away from upside down mortgages and declaring bankruptcy with no social cost. It is the basis of shared values which makes free commercial interaction possible. A clear and understood trust in commonly held values and that those values encourage fairness, thrift and duty to other. But even though I'd probably benefit more from "social justice" than anyone on this list, I'm not a big fan of stealin' from the rich and giving to the poor. That's not fair. It's forcing poor people to accept something they didn't choose! Like making Siddhartha move back into the castle. What does seem like it might be fair is confiscatory inheritance taxes. John Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
