No, I don’t think so. But Why We Bite the Invisible Hand: The Psychology of Anti-Capitalism, by Peter Foster (Pleasaunce Press, 2014), argues that it is. He’s wrong there, but despite that there are many valuable insights in the book, which I began reading a few days ago.

Foster argues that often intuitive ideas are the root of resistance to free markets. Where those intuitive ideas come from is a distinct question—he thinks from millions of years of evolution, I think from simple confusion and sin nature.

Here are just a few quotes that I hope will raise some interest:

“Nobody appears to think it strange that a moral imperative produces perverse results, any more than they think much about where moral imperatives originate.”

“…modern corporations are indeed to be criticized — not for single-minded, shareholder-focused profit maximization, but for often hypocritically buying into subversive notions such as corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. These concepts sound unarguable but are, I contend, part of a reformulated anti-capitalist agenda that emerged and expanded after the fall of Communism. The agenda was — and is — rooted in the United Nations and has been promoted by an ever-expanding group of radical non-governmental organizations that have been particularly active in the environmental movement.”

“A thorough understanding of economics is not merely an option for politicians and political advisors, it is essential. One problem may be that many politicians and advisors are inclined, by the nature of their activist aspirations, not to like what economics has to tell them.”

“Could it be that something about the capitalist system does not fit our “mind’s eye”? Could it be that we look at it through mental spectacles with an outdated prescription, a prescription that prevents us from appreciating its benefits and inclines us to believe those who tell us that it is fundamentally immoral, or even downright evil?”

I’ll stop—almost—with those. Lots in the book to think about, hard. A great deal of real intelligence. And then some things that are simply absurd, like this, which Foster quotes from Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works: “Our brains were shaped for fitness, not for truth.” If that is true, then of course there’s no reason to believe it to be true. It is literally self-refuting.

Such is the outcome of those who exchange the truth of God for the lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator; professing themselves to be wise, they become fools—not necessarily about everything (Foster understands a good deal of economics quite well), but about the most important things.

The book remains well worth reading.