Why Conservatives Are Anti-Business

By Yaron Brook
Recorded March 23, 2006

Conservatives often present themselves as “pro-business” and “pro-free market”—i.e., in favor of an economic system that enables productive businessmen to flourish. Yet, in reality, Dr. Brook observes, conservatives support many anti-business policies, from antitrust prosecution to “windfall” taxes on profits—policies that hurt this nation’s most innovative and successful businessmen.

Conservatives are anti-business in practice, Dr. Brook argues, because they accept an anti-business moral theory—a religious morality that upholds a life of renunciation and sacrifice, and thus advocates a government that shackles, taxes and punishes the pursuit of material success in this world. What America’s productive businessmen need—and, in fact, what all of us need—Dr. Brook explains, is a moral philosophy that regards the creation and enjoyment of wealth as a virtue.

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Why Conservatives Are Anti-Business—lecture only (64 mins.)

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