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America is in the midst of a new culture war, says economist and American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks. Today's central concern is whether America will retain her free enterprise identity or succumb to European-style social democracy. In The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future, Brooks lays out the intellectual and moral map conservatives need to win this war. Examining public opinion surveys about taxes, business, capitalism and government, Brooks found that 70% of Americans prefer free enterprise over big government. The old economic arguments extolling the efficiencies of free markets won't win this battle, argues Brooks. Barack Obama and the 30% coalition won the 2008 election because they offered a false narrative to explain the financial meltdown and by distorting core American values like fairness and compassion. The 30% coalition believes income disparities are unjust and policies that redistribute income advance justice. Brooks contends that conservatives must learn to debunk these notions, and he provides both the empirical data and the ethical rationale for doing so. Increased income that is not earned will not make people happy. Indeed, studies indicate that welfare recipients are far unhappier than equally poor people who don't receive checks. It is earned success, the sense of creating value for oneself and others through hard work and merit that is central to human happiness. Advocates of free enterprise must be able to explain why capitalism gives all Americans the greatest opportunity to succeed, based on their unique abilities and efforts. Conservatives must also effectively counter the 30% coalition's slippery rhetoric about equality and fairness. Redistribution proponents duplicitously lump income equality in with deeply held American ideals of political, legal and religious equality. They confuse equal opportunity with equal outcomes. While Americans agree that everyone has an equal right to a fair trial, we don't affirm the right of everyone to be declared innocent. Income equality is fundamentally different because it asserts a right to an equal outcome. The majority of Americans believe in equal opportunity to earn success through hard work, merit and excellence. They also believe it is patently unfair to make those who work harder or save more prop up those who don't. Proponents of free enterprise must not cede any moral ground to redistributionists. The Battle is a concise, lucid account of the modern struggle for America's future. (Basic Books, 2010, 174 pp., $23.95) |
Only a minority he calls the "30% coalition" favor activist government interventions; yet this group is firmly entrenched in the power centers steering our national ship. How did the minority wrest control from the majority? And how can the majority regain its rightful leadership?
