Why do conservatives say they favor virtue and community but in fact favor laissez-faire capitalism? Doesn laissez-faire capitalism promote the opposite?
Conservatives typically are not fans of pure laissez-faire, although they view economic liberty as one of the traditional liberties of the American people that has served that people well. Many are skeptical of free trade and most favor restraints on immigration for the sake of permitting the existence and development of a reasonably coherent national community. Nor do they oppose in principle the regulation or suppression of businesses that affect the moral order of society, such as prostitution, pornography, and the sale of certain drugs. Conservatives strongly favor free markets when the alternative is to expand bureaucracy to implement liberal goals, a process that clearly has the effect of damaging virtue and community. Also, they tend to prefer self-organization to central control because they believe that overall administration of social life is impossible. They recognize that like tradition the market reflects men’s infinitely various and often unconscious and inarticulate goal
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