Judaism, Markets, and Capitalism: Separating Myth from Reality
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How does one account for the widespread distaste among Jews for the free market? Will Jews, who earn per capita almost twice as much as non-Jews in America, ever get over their "champagne socialism"? Corinne and Robert Sauer, co-founders of the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, contend that "it is not at all true that Judaism is a set of principles that endorses income redistribution and other progressive social programs." Instead, they say, Judaism is a system of thought that more naturally aligns itself with the basic principles of economic liberalism.
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Judaism, Markets, and Capitalism - Corinne Sauer
Judaism, Markets, and Capitalism: Separating Myth from Reality
Corinne Sauer and Robert M. Sauer
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2012 by Acton Institute
An imprint of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty
Edition License Notes
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CONTENTS
I. Introduction
II. The Political Preferences of American Jews
III. The Political Preferences of Israeli Jews
IV. Jewish Theology and Economic Theory
V. Some Policy Implications
VI. The Legacy of European Anti-Semitism
Notes
About the Authors
Judaism, Markets, and Capitalism: Separating Myth from Reality
The active participation of man in the creation of his own wealth is a sign of his spiritual greatness.
—Rabbenu Bachya
Introduction
Milton Himmelfarb, one of the most well-known sociographers of the American Jewish community, definitively summed up the American Jewish political paradox with his famous aphorism: Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.
American Jews, it seems, tenaciously refuse to be part of any empirical regularity that links higher income levels with more conservative, or economically liberal (in the European sense), political positions. Recent data indicate that American Jews earn per capita almost twice as much as non-Jews. Yet, they are between 33 and 50 percent less likely than American Catholics and Protestants to identify themselves as supporters of the free market.¹
Why is it that American Jews suffer from (or perhaps enjoy) a particularly acute case of champagne socialism? The most popular answer to this difficult question involves the impact of Judaism on the belief system of American Jews, as well as Judaism’s emphasis on aggressively pursuing social justice.² The conventional wisdom is that Judaism motivates Jews to be highly educated and to succeed professionally but to fervently support relatively collectivist social policies and other forms of aggressive government intervention for shaping an ideal society.
In this monograph, we raise serious questions about the plausibility of this theory. In our view, the fundamental problem with the so-called standard answer is that it is not at all