Fewer, Richer, Greener

17The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: Deirdre McCloskey, Capitalism, and Christian Ethics

Luis Buñuel, auteur of the film with the above familiar title, was joking: he despised the bourgeoisie. So do many other artists and intellectuals. It’s mostly jealousy, evidenced by the easy lifestyles into which most artists and intellectuals glide when they get a little money. But critics of the bourgeoisie have a wisp of a point: both the petite bourgeoisie (little middle class) of shopkeepers and functionaries and the haute bourgeoisie (high middle class) of businesspeople and professionals can be hidebound, stuffy, materialistic, silly, and sometimes more than a little bigoted.

But what Buñuel and his allies don’t realize, and what the economist and philosopher Deirdre McCloskey powerfully reminds us in the series of books that is the basis for this chapter, is that the bourgeoisie is the foundation on which a civilized society is built.

Really? Yes. Great achievements are important, and I’ll get to them in a moment. But, for a society to thrive, a large number of people have to live decent, productive lives doing ordinary things. The shoe repairman, the software developer, the grade-school teacher, the bank vice president—the bourgeoisie haute and petite—are as important to a functioning civilization as the great man or woman of science. As Mister (Fred) Rogers reminded us, you do not have to do anything spectacular to have a worthy and meaningful existence.

Deirdre McCloskey, ...