The other day, I criticized the dark side of the freedom Edward Glaeser sees as the moral heart of economics.
Nancy Folbre has developed a different but not unrelated critique, based on the ideas of social responsibility and solidarity.
Long before Karl Marx invented the term “class struggle,” socialist ideals grew out of family values of solidarity and care for others. Like families, societies sometimes fail to find the right balance between freedom and responsibility, and if they fail, they fall apart. Freedom is just one chamber of our moral heart. . .
That binding seems to chafe many of our fellow citizens. Many large corporations want to be free of us and have already moved out. They are angling for a no-fault divorce, with no child support or alimony. They don’t want to help pay for our education, our health or our retirement, and with offshore production and clever tax shelters, they won’t have to.
Their hearts are weak, and ours may soon be broken.
