Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Traditionalist conservative Jim Kalb has a wrestle with Wilhelm Ropke's "A Humane Economy." The underknown Ropke -- one of my favorite economists -- is someone who I imagine those who resonate to the Small is Beautiful thang would enjoy getting to know. His central theme is this: "OK, a free-ish economy seems to be the goose that lays the golden egg, and economic wealth and economic growth are both Good and Important things. But the processes of the free-ish economy often seem to erode and undermine the social and environmental bases that make the free-ish economy possible in the first place. What, if anything, to do about this?" I'm not sure that all of Ropke's suggestions would translate well to the U.S.'s circumstances. But I got a lot out of accompanying his mind as he thought his way through the facts and the implications anyway.

Here's an excellent Shawn Ritenour introduction to Ropke, and an equally-excellent John Zmirak essay about him. I enjoyed Zmirak's book about Ropke too.

A while back, 2Blowhards did a three-part interview with Jim Kalb about traditionalist conservatism: here, here, and here. It's a terrific (and eye-opening) interview if I do say so myself. Jim is one of the best explicators imaginable.

Best,

Michael

I very much enjoyed reading through here.

Posted by: LetterShaper on January 12, 2007 10:11 PM






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