When I started this blog a year ago, I naïvely believed that no one else was seriously talking about how free market, conservative principles are the most effective means of fixing the problems of poverty and social inequality. How glad I am to have been wrong.
Over the weekend I found this video and this TED talk from Arthur Brooks, who is an economist and the president of the American Enterprise Institute. Go watch them. The few minutes you’ll spend with those videos could be the most valuable time you’ll spend this week.
In those videos, Arthur effectively makes one of the central points I’ve been trying to make for over a year now: “[Y]ou know what we need? You know what the social justice agenda is for conservatives today? It’s a hope agenda. And a hope agenda has three parts: work, entrepreneurship, and education.”
I passionately agree with the vision Arthur lays out. He’s not only describing why we as conservatives should be concerned with the prosperity of all Americans, both those who agree with us and those who don’t, he lays out a framework that will help to answer how we can start to achieve it.
At its core, the free market—Adam Smith’s capitalism—is about enriching the lives of every single person. We can make this vision of capitalism a reality through simple changes in the way we approach our businesses and our neighbors. Those changes start with taking a fresh approach, with thinking about how we can help others see the virtue in work and in the enterprise of building their lives.
For me at least, that change will start here. I haven’t yet figured out what it will be, but I’m changing the name of this blog. “Better Than Capitalism” is a strawman – I’m not writing about something better than capitalism, I’m writing about how to help more people through the application of conservative principles and a right understanding of how the world works.
In the longer run, the change will also involve doing more than blogging. Arthur Brooks can make his living as an economist, a thinker, and a speaker, but I want to be a doer. I want to take the principles that we have identified and put them into practice. More than that, I want to show you that they work in the hope that you’ll emulate them.
We don’t need the government to fix the problem of poverty. We can do it ourselves and it will mean so much more if we do.
I will go watch those videos. What you’re saying is similar to what I’ve been thinking since being selected last night as a precinct chairman, that we’ve become a people caught up in trying to put a ‘king’ over us and not putting enough effort in doing what we can for ourselves. I’m looking forward to see how your blog and other efforts evolve.
Ben,
Agree with this post, probably more than any other. The concept of a hope agenda and fighting for people resonates strongly with my beliefs.
As I sat in caucus meetings last evening, listening to the different perspectives, I wish I would have seen this earlier. The discussion focused on “things” and not “people”. The outcomes wouldn’t have been different but the thinking in the room would have dramatically changed.
I appreciate you publishing these articles as the give me a moment to pause, think and reflect on my own perspectives.
Thanks,
David