The Forgotten Giant

Reclaiming the American Dream, by Richard C. Cornuelle. Random House, $3.95 Contrary to Liberal complaint, the productive energies of a free society can supply human needs far better than can government compulsion. That is the lesson taught by free enterprise economists, and by the market economy itself, wherever it has been allowed to function. It is a lesson given new edge and relevance by Richard C. Cornuelle in Reclaiming the American Dream. Mises and Hayek and Friedman have shown that where the profit motive operates freedom is superior to collectivism; Cornuelle seeks to prove that even where profits are not involved, freedom is still the better way.

One problem with the conservative or free enterprise approach, in Cornuelle’s view, is that it focuses too much on the profitable side of its performance, too little on the philanthropic. Liberals seem always to be arguing “for” something, conservatives “against.” The Liberal appears to be compassionate and humane; the conservative, insensitive and selfish. The difference is made to order for Liberal successes at the polls. To counteract this disadvantage, the author says, conservatives should start paying some attention to the immense achievement of voluntary action in curing illness, eliminating poverty, providing jobs, etc., and the still greater potential for voluntarism in fulfilling future needs.

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M. Stanton Evans

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Reclaiming the American Dream, by Richard C. Cornuelle. Random House, $3.95 Contrary to Liberal complaint, the productive energies of a free society can supply human needs far better than can government compulsion. That is the lesson taught by free enterprise economists, and by the market economy itself, wherever it has been allowed to function. It is a lesson given new edge and relevance by Richard C. Cornuelle in Reclaiming the American Dream. Mises and Hayek and Friedman have shown that where the profit motive operates freedom is superior to collectivism; Cornuelle seeks to prove that even where profits are not involved, freedom is still the better way.

One problem with the conservative or free enterprise approach, in Cornuelle’s view, is that it focuses too much on the profitable side of its performance, too little on the philanthropic. Liberals seem always to be arguing “for” something, conservatives “against.” The Liberal appears to be compassionate and humane; the conservative, insensitive and selfish. The difference is made to order for Liberal successes at the polls. To counteract this disadvantage, the author says, conservatives should start paying some attention to the immense achievement of voluntary action in curing illness, eliminating poverty, providing jobs, etc., and the still greater potential for voluntarism in fulfilling future needs.