Foundations of a Free & Virtuous Society

Ethics in business has been a subject long ignored. This short book puts ethics and economics in perspective. Well worth the effort to read.

This book is an excellent primer on Acton's main concern: why is the free and virtuous society the best way to think about ordering our economic life together? In five concise chapters, Pahman offers a crash course in some of the basics of free enterprise grounded in an orthodox/mere Christian anthropology of the human person. I intend to use this with my high school seniors. Highly recommended for those wondering how free market economics fit with a Christian ethical outlook.

I found this book to be both insightful and entertaining. As someone familiar with both theology and economics to some degree, I was able to skim some sections but I found a lot of meat in every chapter.

Phaman’s book, in five succinct chapters covers a world of information. Though handling profound topics – it’s far more than a primer on economics, Pahman’s simple and direct prose unwraps the issues underlying the very basis of what may be termed classic republicanism, that is a society voluntarily comprised of free and virtuous individuals who are working together in this society to promote both the individual and the common good. Pahman’s essential dilemma boils down to whether traditional Christian morality is consonant with free market capitalism.In the first chapter Pahman cuts away a lot of the flotsam and jetsam that clogs up the streams of his discussion by getting right to the question of what type of creature is the human. Situating himself within the ancient, medieval, and early modern republican tradition, Pahman sees us first and foremost as free moral and rational beings (and these two items cannot be separated in us even if distinguished). While accepting the reality of sin, humans nonetheless in Pahman’s telling retain the reality of God’s Image and can thus still fulfill the basic functions of their nature, chiefly if imperfectly, to seek beatitude and happiness (felicity as opposed to crass hedonism) through their life in the society with one another. The second chapter takes us into taller grass with what exactly is the society these free humans create, and this question is then made more precise in the third chapter that treats what an economy exactly is, that is, how do we describe the interchanges between the humans of the city, republic, polis.The last two chapters, however, are where the rubber hits the road, where Pahman shows that the answers of the free society to its problems of living in common are not only pragmatically more advantageous (notes already played in the first three chapters), but are ethically far more beneficial to all concerned, and importantly thus far more just. In chapter five, leaning on work of Bastiat and von Mises, inter alios, Pahman shows that prices are signals that denote value: if something is priced too high I will value my money more than the object, say a Range Rover may be less valuable to me than other options I might have for my $60,000+. Further, property entails the basic assumption of virtue, that I am master first of myself and have gained control of the passions that can easily enslave me, for to be thrall to someone or something else is to be a slave. Pahman addresses the dangers of various socialist and communitarian ideas. Even property shared willingly always entails an exchange of value, for the cost of lack of ownership means lack of responsibility for care of the commodity (the tragedy of the commons). Pahman illustrates this via an example of grad distribution in a classroom, and how this stifles initiative on all sides. The chapter also does a very good defense of profits (without them, there would be no industry, and thus no jobs).His last chapter, on inequality and freedom starts with Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” and then moves to how inequality is inescapable. This leads to discussions of trade in light of “comparative advantage” (if a farmer’s not going to make his own shoes, he’s already taken part in “foreign” trade with is neighbor), the blessings of technology (the decline of print media has led to the rise of opportunities for more writers, editors, web developers, online marketers, etc.), the rosy side of inequality (while the rich have been getting richer, so have the poor been getting richer), and ends with discussions of the rule of law and free markets (though not mentioned, one of the biggest supporters of internet taxation is . . . cough . . AMZN, as they have the means to implement taxes in all 50+ U.S. taxing jurisdictions, but all the individual bookstores in abebooks.com do not, thus using the law to create an advantage for itself).On every level Pahman has sought to engage his readers with both the realities of economics and the righteousness enjoined on us by Christianity, and this short book is an excellent primer for discussion groups, home studies, etc., for entering these questions.

A short yet dense book about how Christians should view free market economics from a biblical standpoint. Loved the quirky examples and pop culture references as well as the prescient quotes from early church fathers.

I came very close to to giving this book 4 stars, but decided that would be unfair. After all, Pahman does exactly what he sets out to do (and makes his objectives clear from the start). First, he gives a brief basis for what a biblical vision of man might be, and how he relates to society. Second, he outlines some basic economic principles, how these relate to our previously learnt vision of society, and explains them by exploring what would happen if (or rather, when) they are ignored.His writing is clear and concise, quirky and personal, and you really feel like you have a friend explaining these ideas to you over a pint.The only reason I considered not giving this 5 stars is that it's hard to know who the target audience is. Pahman is a research fellow for the Acton Institute, and the foreword and blurb are written by a colleague. As such, it seems to function more as a primer on the core approach or basic principles of the Acton Institute (I live in the UK where as far as I can tell there is no successful equivalent, unfortunately). This is not a problem per se (I suspect Pahman would be happy enough with this as a description), but if you have spent any time at all exploring these ideas, it may well be that this is too simple for you. If you're firmly on the left and believe capitalism is evil and must fall for humans to flourish, this somewhat innocent introduction probably isn't going to go far enough to persuade you otherwise.I read this as a "back to basics"; an easy-to-read summary of conclusions I had already come to that might help me to explain it to others... a bit like when Christians go on an Alpha course! (Infact, the bite-sized sections and discussion questions make this quite a lot like an Alpha course-style resource for this particular perspective on markets.) As this, it was an enjoyable and quick read, and the most onwardly useful bits of it will be the various quotations and references from Church Fathers, Popes, economists and formidable figures like Kuyper that will spur further reading around the subject. But I think this book would be best given to a Christian dipping their toes into economics for the first time; perhaps a bright teenager before they are swept away with the economic illiteracy or Marxist materialism of their college peers.