The present economic and political crisis gripping Europe and the United States is first and foremost a crisis of morality. A lack of prudence and temperance, caused by a creed of greed and materialism, is at the root of the economic meltdown. Nor is the creed of greed restricted to one side of the conventional political spectrum. The greed of bankers and usurers, aided and abetted by the greed of credit-addicted consumers, is one half of the problem; the other half of the problem is the greed of Big Brother socialism, aided and abetted by the greed of welfare-addicted proletarians. Neither side is willing to face the moral cause of the problem because both sides are ultimately on the same side. Regardless of the extent to which the capitalists blame the socialists for the problem, or vice versa, the fact remains that both sides believe that self-indulgence is the goal of the “good life”. In my book, Small is Still Beautiful (ISI Books), I echo the wisdom of the great economist and Catholic convert, E. F. Schumacher, who insisted that the practice of the cardinal virtues was the only path to genuine prosperity, for individuals and for society as a whole. The creed of greed leads to moral and material meltdown and the misery which is its consequence. A life of virtue leads to a better life here and now and to everlasting life in the hereafter. The choice facing each of us as individuals and all of us as members of a genuine brotherhood of man is not only simple but obvious. Choose virtue and we will live a free and full life; choose vice and we will find ourselves trapped in its vice-like grip.

Here is he eloquent Theodore Dalrymple on this very topic: http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/talibans-of-austerity