We cannot love things. People are the subjects of history. Things are the objects and tools of history. When we treat things with the reverence due to people, people suffer. We know now that the free market can be a very powerful force for good in the world and in our own country.
More people live better and longer than at any time in history.
But more people are also poor and suffering than at any time in history. One of the lessons of history, and both the Christian and Jewish Scriptures, is that the rich forget the poor. Power, including economic power, can become a kind of addiction. The language of appetite begins to subvert the language of ideals. If we associate the idea of freedom with cars or cell phones or computers, as we relentlessly do in our advertising, pretty soon we lose the real vocabulary of freedom.