Benjamin Franklin is neither Moses nor Jesus Christ, nor even John Calvin. A market economy can provide us with economic growth and individual liberty—but it cannot prevent us from abusing our affluence or our liberty. It can at best offer us a vision of human decency, not of human perfection. And it certainly cannot offer us consolation amidst disaster, reassurance as to the meaningfulness of life when our bourgeois virtues do not avail us. Gilder—like von Mises, from whom he has clearly learned much—seems to lack a religious sense. He sees so vividly into economic reality that he is blinded to other, no less important aspects of reality. That is a serious flaw.
II. GILDER:
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