Roger Scruton on the limits of the libertarians

“There are those—Milton Friedman, for example, or Murray Rothbard—who have powerfully argued that a genuinely free market will ensure the good government of human communities, through the self-restraining impulse that comes naturally to us. But their arguments, however sophisticated, are addressed to Americans, who live among abundant resources, free from external threat, surrounded by opportunities and in communities where the volunteer spirit survives. And they do not confront the central question, which is how communities renew themselves, and how fundamental flaws in the human constitution, such as resentment, envy and sexual predation, are to be overcome by something so abstract and neutral as consumer sovereignty and free economic choice.”

This comes from an essay on the economic views of Wilhelm Röpke, father of social market economics. Scruton believes that the common error of Marxists and social democrats is the assumption that social problems are rooted in economic disparities. It's worth reading, I think. More thoughts later, perhaps.