yes I have read it in some detail, and I question seriously whether the authors have proven that in fact, those mentalities are operative or dominant in the countries surveyed, or if they do, they result from the influence of Catholic teaching. IMO the authors have failed to demonstrate these assertions.
Rig above has good points, worth carefully thinking over. The old model of Adam Smith-style capitalism/Thos. Jefferson democratic agrarianism is that every citizen also owns property. Or has an economic environment in which it’s possible to acquire property and ultimately own the farm, or the small artisan shop.
The scale of things today is so large, that this is impossible. The last guy to really push for small freeholders was Louis Brandeis. The rise of the corporate structure, and its increasing legal and political power, really changes those early notions about capitalism.
I’m a small businessman; I’m big on what it can do. The technologies we have today, though, mean that we pretty much have to have these gigantic corporate entities, and the political problems they bring.
Have a look at the history of labor in those countries that have become industrial power houses. Early on domination of production by what one might call “robber barons” followed by the rise of powerful labor unions with a concomitant rise in buying power by the masses and their intrusion into ownership of property and wealth.
I think some countries have now entered a third stage where labor, distributed ownership, and wealth have led or are leading to societies whose values now match those of the old so-called “play boys.” Decay sets in.
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