Talking Tocqueville: Part 3:

The Dangers of Prosperity

When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
As top of the mind becomes the bottom line
When success is equated with excess
-Switchfoot

There is great danger arising from the prosperity produced by free markets and free men. Tocqueville observes early America and sees a nation constantly in motion with the goal of prosperity. Every man is in a frenzy to produce and to sell. In this frenzy many people make a lot of money. But there is a great danger in this frenzy of prosperity, and ironically, that danger is stagnation. When a group of people become caught up in the buying and selling their goals become immediate and self-focused and it is these points of focus that are an imminent threat to free man. When every man’s goal is the fulfillment of his immediate desires then society will fall apart. For when no one thinks of anyone else and when no one things long-term, we set no goals and we make no progress. We begin to fear challenges to our minds, to our ideas, because that gets in the way of our profit. Free men are in great danger of gaining the world and losing their souls. Tocqueville expresses this same concern:

I confess to the dread that they will ultimately allow themselves to be overtaken by a craven love of immediate pleasures that concern for their own future and that of their descendants may vanish, and that they will prefer to follow tamely the course of their own destiny rather than make a sudden and energetic effort to set things right when the need arises.

And that is where we are now; or at least where we are headed. America today is producing nothing of value. We are producing every conceivable consumer product and all variety of convenient services, but what of meaning is our culture doing?

Like a puppet on a monetary string
Maybe we've been caught singing
Red, white, blue, and green
But that ain't my America,
That ain't my American dream
-Switchfoot

I do not demand political freedom so that each of us can each go do whatever he feels like for his own pleasure. I demand freedom because human beings are made for more than immediate pleasures. And each man should pursue for himself the Good for which we are all made, without interference from other people. Government ought to prevent such interference by both individuals and itself.

Other parts of this series:
Part 1: Religion And Liberty
Part 2: The Tyranny of the Majority
Part 3: The Dangers of Prosperity