Daniel Klein, a professor of economics at George Mason University, asked me to post this.
First, a little background: Dan was drawn to a piece by Adam Smalick in our sister publication. Law and FreedomSmalik, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote:Who will lead us?” Law and FreedomJune 3, 2024.
The passage reads as follows:
The Framers of the Constitution constantly pointed to the importance of virtue in preserving the republic. George Washington wrote in his Farewell Address that “Virtue or morality is the necessary source of popular government.” John Adams wrote that “the only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue” and that “the only foundation of a republic is public virtue.” Benjamin Rush argued that “without virtue there is no liberty.” Benjamin Franklin wrote that “only a virtuous people can obtain liberty.” James Madison wrote that “it is a fanciful idea to suppose that any form of government can secure liberty or happiness without virtue in the people.” And Samuel Adams argued that “those who, therefore, are most laborious to promote the virtue of a country are the truest friends of its liberty.”
“May I add Adam Smith as an honorary Founding Father?” Dan commented. Theory of moral sentiments he I have written:
Can any system of government be more conducive to the happiness of mankind than the general prevalence of wisdom and virtue? All governments are but imperfect remedies for these defects; and, therefore, whatever virtues may belong to civil governments for their usefulness, they must belong in a far superior degree to them. Conversely, can any civil policy be more ruinous and destructive than human vice? The fatal effects of bad governments arise from their inability to adequately prevent the evils which human wickedness causes.
I agree with all of that, but I also want to point out that markets often give people powerful incentives to do good. I wrote a chapter about this in my 2001 book. The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Adventure.
