Mark T. Mitchell is a professor of government at Patrick Henry College, a religious college in Virginia. In his recent book Plutocratic Socialism, he argues:Certain virtues are necessary for the maintenance of a free society.Those virtues are typical of the middle class and are much more likely to flourish in a society based on widespread ownership of property.In societies like the United States where there has been a decline in the widespread ownership of property, a growth of economic inequality, and the rise of a powerful welfare state, a plutocracy will ally itself with a socialist and woke state to control society.I will argue that most of Mitchell’s claims are doubtful or, at least, in need of better specifications and demonstrations.Which virtues? / To what extent does a free society and its maintenance require certain virtues of its members? Many economists believe that, on the market model, self‐interest is sufficient because each individual can only pursue his own interest by serving other people’s interests. One dissenter of this view was Nobel economist James Buchanan, the main founder of the public choice school of economics. Buchanan argued that a widely shared ethics of natural equality between individuals is required. (See “An Enlightenment Thinker,” Spring 2022.)
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