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Entry: A Road Not Taken: Distributism Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_road_not_taken_distributism#19776 Post contents: <i>"As I’ve written before, in a friendly critique of Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons, it really is possible to square the circle here. How about this: Those of us who understand the importance of economic independence, the virtues of independent farms and mom and pop businesses (and here comes the radical step) should patronize them. And convince our friends to join us. And boycott everything else."</i> I agree, but good luck trying to convince our Catholic libertarian friends of that. I had an extended public debate with Tom Woods (whom I truly regard as a friend; I've known him for over ten years) well over a year before his book came out, and the Catholic libertarians, to a man, denied that there is anything of value in independent farms and mom and pop businesses. They made it very clear that they sure as hell weren't going to patronize them. Part of my argument at the time (which parallels yours) is that what you propose above is actually more libertarian. But too many (all?) Catholic libertarians regard "Catholic" as a mere adjective, and "libertarian" as the noun that represents their core. One wrote in private correspondence to me that I was right--that he really regards all of Catholic social teaching, going back to the apostolic age, as wrong, because it contradicts Austrian economics. Sent at: 2008 05 11