[FITZ]

. There are conflicts between Christianity and capitalism that may make the American synthesis hard to maintain.

Not really ---I don't see the conflicts when American culture brought about the highest standard of living for the most people. Christianity doesn't need to have most of the people living in dire poverty. The good old protestant work ethic wasn't such a bad thing ---and it didn't have to be just for protestants.

[x]

Christian self-denial helped fuel capitalist development, and may do so in Latin America and parts of Africa. Once societies become wealthy enough, though, capitalists grow restive under Christian restraints. Christian morality is seen as a barrier to further economic development fueled by mass consumption. Religious leaders are uneasy with mass consumption capitalism and some ally with government efforts to use accumulated wealth for "social" ends. So the Christian-capitalist synthesis breaks up.

The US is the great exception to this evolution, though in the 1950s and 1960s it probably didn't look that way. Evangelical Christianity is very strongly rooted here, but it wasn't in Europe and it's unclear just how exportable our model is.

We send other countries mixed messages and it's not clear which part will get through. My guess is that it's too much to expect that other countries will follow both our religious broadcasters and our secular advertisers.