Capitalism, says Social Philosopher Irving Kristol, "is based on private property, where normal economic activity consists of commercial transactions between consenting adults." The idea seems elementary enough: people have the right to acquire and trade property in a free market, to start and build enterprises without fear of government intervention or confiscation, to expand or languish according to their own abilities. But when early Enlightenment thinkers began to propagate that simple philosophy in the 18th century, it represented a scandalous revolution in a world in which the individual was merely a subject of...
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