laodicea: Chesterton on Capitalism on Private Property

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Monday, January 17, 2005

Chesterton on Capitalism on Private Property

A pickpocket is obviously a champion of private enterprise. But it would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that a pickpocket is a champion of private property. The point about Capitalism and Commercialism, as conducted of late, is that they have really preached the extension of business rather than the preservation of belongings; and have at best tried to disguise the pickpocket with some of the virtues of the pirate. The point about Communism is that it only reforms the pickpocket by forbidding pockets.

The Outline of Sanity (1926, and other editions/reprints)

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