The conservative case against capitalism

The left's anxiety about concentrated wealth was anticipated almost a century ago — by the Catholic right

Economic independence
(Image credit: (Images courtesy Thinkstock))

With the red hair of one she-urchin in the gutter I will set fire to all modern civilization. - G.K. Chesterton

My colleague Ryan Cooper and many others have recently praised the work of French economist Thomas Piketty, whose Capital in the Twenty-First Century was recently released in the United States. Cooper summarizes Piketty's thesis this way: "Piketty's analysis of the last two centuries makes the case that capital in its natural state does not tend to spread out or trickle down, but to concentrate in the hands of a few." This, in other words, is patrimonial capitalism.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.