Sunday, May 22, 2011

Econ 495

I had some driving to do this weekend on Interstate 495 to D.C.  I listened to some Berryesque critiques of (certain kinds of) capitalism from the latest Mars Hill audio on the way down - encapsulations of Herman Daly's introduction to a new Berry anthology and John Médaille's freshly articulated distributist perspective. On the way back, the plot thickened considerably as I wrapped up Jerry Z. Muller's not-to-be-underestimated course on capitalism.  In short, yes capitalism can destroy communities - but it frequently creates new ones as well. Both directions were necessary, and the round trip result is a welcome perplexity, in which I hope to remain.  Or to quote part 2, "The economy's not a class you can master in college, to think otherwise is the pretense of knowledge."