Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter

Thus does the free society insist on relentless adaption to progress - and he has grave doubts that people are culturally prepared for this process. His most lasting contribution is his insight that capitalism is a process of creative destruction, constantly bringing us new innovations and wiping out the old ways. Not everything he says in here is prophetic but he makes the reader think hard about the big issues in society. He is particularly ruthless in observing how people take the triumphs of capitalism for granted, and how even those who benefit most from its productivity tend to be the same people who want the capitalist process shut down in their own self-interest. It is most famous for its prediction that capitalism is unsustainable not because it is a flawed system but rather because voters and bureaucrats in an otherwise free society will fail to protect capitalism from its enemies. It was written in 1942 and its importance has grown year by year to the point that no student of the liberal society can afford not to read and master this treatise. He understood Marxism and capitalist theory as well as any of his contemporaries, and managed to keep enough distance from the affair of the day to observe the big trends and the dynamics pushing them.

But he is second to none in the integration of social, political, and economic thought. Schumpeter went his own way with an eclectic and unsystematic theory of economics. Schumpeter himself cannot be called a member of the Austrian School but he emerges from within its culture and among its leading thinkers. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy is packed with scintillating insight on all the topics that really matter: capitalism and its future, the absurdities of socialism, the dangers of democratic rule, the future of freedom, and the social dynamics that protect and undermine freedom.

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter