Its principles apply whether or not they are understood, approved and cherished. Capitalism is no relic of Colonial America. It has the genius of freedom to change with the times and to meet the challenges of big industries, big unions, and big government if it can free itself from the restraints of interest-group intervention which eventuates in needless government expansion and spending. Let the market work, and the ambition of each individual will serve the common good of society. Capitalism is an economic system which believes with Locke and Jefferson that life, liberty, and property are among the inalienable rights of man.
Capitalism denies the banal dichotomy between property values and human values.
Property values are human values. Imagine the disjunction when it is applied to a person with a mechanical limb or a cardiac pacemaker. The workman with his tools and the farmer with his land are almost as dramatic in the exemplification of the identity between a person and his property. Capitalism is belief in man-an assumption that prosperity and happiness are best achieved when each person lives by his own will and his own intelligence. Each person is a responsible citizen.