Book Summary
FREEDOM MANIFESTO
Why Free Markets Are Moral And Big Government Isn't 
By Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames
Published by Crown Business (2012)

The battle for the soul of America is between the belief in free markets and the faith in government regulation. Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes? Which will provide the best way to a moral society? According to the authors, apparently against popular sentiment, free markets is the way to go.

They cited several reasons for their advocacy for less government intervention and more market freedom:

(1) Citing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they contended that freedom was the original guiding spirit behind the intentions of the Founding Fathers.

(2) Quoting Adam Smith, they believed that if everyone is motivated by self-interest in a free market to satisfy the needs and wants of other people, these mutually beneficial exchanges will form an "Invisible Hand" that creates and allocates resources in a manner that will generate innovations and wealth, raises living standards and, by competing with each other, produces amazing new products which become readily available at a low price. On the other hand, the prime motivation behind government action is often merely political survival.

(3) By preserving our right to make free choices, a free system will create a wider array of new goods and services to meet demand. This will help to generate abundance from scarcity thereby fostering a prosperous society. In contrast, government regulation works by coercion which sometimes lead to undesirable outcomes.

(4) Free markets unleashes human ingenuity and creativity. In a process where successful products can soon become obsolete and learning from failure can lead to better products, democratic capitalism can lead to innovations that will help to solve real problems and improve the lives of many. On the other side of the coin, because the core competency of government is order and security, it leads to rigidity and stagnation.

(5) Free enterprise bestows personal autonomy which helps to empower people, whereas government support only traps people in a cycle of dependency and entitlement.

(6) Free markets reward people and companies for their ability to meet the needs and demands of society. Therefore, it promotes a purer form of meritocracy that allows people to move up the social ladder. Political cronyism, on the other hand, only channels privileges to a favored few, running the risk of encouraging corruption.

(7) Free market transactions are based on an inherent trust and cooperation between market participants and an optimistic view of human nature. The pessimistic assumptions of government prioritize the need to safeguard people, minimize risks and control chaos.

Notwithstanding the enthusiasm of the authors for free markets, I wonder what the latter can do to protect the environment, to narrow income disparity and to address controversial issues concerning health care, housing and finance.

Book Summary
CIVILIZATION - THE WEST AND THE REST 
By Niall Ferguson
Published by the Penguin Group (2011)

Why did the civilization of Western Europe dominate the world since 1500? That is the central question this book seeks to address, and Harvard historian Niall Ferguson's answer is that the West developed six killer applications that the Rest lacked.

They are:
(1) Free competition in politics and economics;
(2) The Scientific Revolution which brought a new and reliable way of studying, understanding and changing the natural world;
(3) The rule of law as a means of protecting property rights and ensuring stable representative government;
(4) Modern medicine to allow major improvements in health and life expectancy;
(5) Consumerism which drives and sustains the Industrial Revolution and the mass production of goods;
(6) Protestant work ethic of extensive and intensive labor, high savings and capital accumulation.

The secret of these six applications lies in the fact that they provide the conditions for setting up the best available economic, social and political institutions which, in turn, triggers individual human creativity and ingenuity in solving  the problems of the modern world.

It has been observed that the West has been losing its edge lately to China and other emerging powers. Whether this is the start of a decline from 500 years of world domination would depend on the quality of Western educational systems and the self-confidence and self-belief they engender.

BOOK REVIEW
THE ENLIGHTENMENT VISION
By Stuart Jordan (2012 Prometheus Books)

The Enlightenment was an ethically secular and humanistic intellectual movement that swept through Europe and America from the mid-seventeenth century. Using the twin weapons of science and reason, it sought to improve life for everyone through the optimistic adoption of universal values such as freedom, equality, democracy and individuality. It launched the modern world as we know it today.

This volume is an evaluation of the validity, feasibility, success and prospect of the Enlightenment vision. Jordan's verdict is that the goals of Enlightenment are the correct ones but the surprising delay to their realization is caused by widespread ignorance of things already established and well-known but not properly transmitted. Since all reality is amenable to scientific investigation, all we need is more research in order to complete our human knowledge.

Since science is the investigation of the natural world through a process of imagination, observation, experimentation and rational thought, it will yield reliable knowledge about the probable outcomes of human action and guide our choices for the maximization of human welfare. That way, scientific knowledge can help to inform our ethics.

So far, Enlightenment's successes are many including the increased general well-being in most parts of the world, the advent of valuable technologies and the advances in democracy and human rights. On the other hand, the unjust economic distribution of wealth, the use of destructive technology and the damaged ecosystem tell us that the vision still has some way to go.

To the author, the eventual achievement of the vision's goals can by hastened by reforming education. Instead of providing mere training for the masses and reserving genuine education for the elites, all citizens should be given the opportunity to develop their capacity for critical thinking. He believes that our strong human survival instincts will drive us to make the right choices including the rejection of superstitions and unreasonable religious beliefs.