“The chronic goad of fear”

This outstanding quote — I’d never heard before — leads a Slate review of the new Iron Man flick: iHero — Why Iron Man is like Steve Jobs.

“Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices. It is this superlatively moral system that the welfare statists propose to improve upon by means of preventative law, snooping bureaucrats, and the chronic goad of fear.”—Alan Greenspan