The Costs of Living: How Market Freedom Erodes the Best Things in Life
This text argues that market freedom is undermining much that is good in life and offers ways to put an end to this erosion. People value their freedom, family, friends, work, education, health and leisure - the things that are regarded as the best things in life. However, the pressure to satisfy both the "bottom line" and the seemingly insatiable need to consume is eroding these "best things". Children are more interested in what their sporting heroes earn than their actual sporting success; educational systems have become financial investments, and not media for learning; the business world turns idealists into cynics who cut corners, choose quantity over quality and cross legal boundaries; and professional people weigh the "opportunity costs" of spending time with their family and friends against working longer hours.