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Entry: A Road Not Taken: Distributism Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_road_not_taken_distributism#19859 Post contents: I'd take a little different approach to the problems distributism attempts to address. I've long been fascinated with the cultural and economic differences between modern free labor and the older systems of bonded labor (e.g., serfdom and slavery). There is no finer system for the hardworking and capable than free labor, and modern capitalism shows that. But a large number of the less capable suffer, and when we have to imprison them or feed them, we all suffer. Slavery and serfdom, on the other hand, take care of these least capable and provide for them. The tragedy was that this system trapped the most capable (except for the church). I think this explains the remarkable stability of pre-modern Europe. It wasn't until this system was supplanted that the major upheavals started. The other problem is cultural; our societies, and the older systems of mutual rights and obligations are no more, particularly noblesse oblige. When we were one people, with a common culture and ancestry, the elites felt they had a moral duty to look out for their less fortunate cousins. Today this whole idea is gone. The answer? The first thing we need to do is to dispense with the abomination known as egalitarianism and look at our problems with clear eyes. We need a two-tier society where the least capable, and those incapable of living without constant guidance, can receive that guidance. And the rest of us should be on our own and have the corresponding rights and obligations. I also think that if we try and put the pieces of our broken culture back together, and dispense with socialism, that these problems will ameliorate through noblesse oblige, or what the evolutionists call altruism. Sent at: 2008 05 11