After all, some were wise while others were foolish.
Some forms are better than others.
This was certainly the view of German economist Wilhelm Roepke who believed the best defense of a market economy was to distinguish its basic principles from the historical form the industrialized, capitalistic economy actually took. By observing this distinction, Roepke was able to defend the ideal of a free and humane market economy without becoming trapped into defending those distortions many critics of capitalism rightly identified. However, for those of us on the political right, this may prove uncomfortable. Roepke argued strenuously all his life for the latter and not the former. It is a deformity inherited from previous historical periods as well as from certain immanent tendencies in modern economies.