PowerLinks - 08.31.12 | Acton PowerBlog

PowerLinks – 08.31.12

by Joe Carter on Friday, August 31, 2012

Is Caring for the Poor Too Big for the Church?
Kristin Hansen, Institute for Faith, Work & Economics

How are Christians to think through this question from a sound Biblical and economic perspective? We know the Bible teaches we are to care for the poor, but how can we do that most effectively?

What Silent Cal Could Tell Romney
Charles C. Johnson, City Journal

Lessons from the last Republican Massachusetts governor turned presidential nominee.

Religious Liberty and the Pursuit of the Common Good
Tim Høiland, Comment

At a time of increased secularization, heightened tensions between adherents of different faiths, and the inevitable tensions that result, how should governments go about protecting religious liberty for all?

Is Capitalism “Pro-Business?”
Steve Horwitz, LearnLiberty.org

Pro-business legislation restricts progress and therefore caters to the interests of industry rather than to consumers, whereas “supporters of free markets are ultimately pro-human and pro-people because it is through markets that we get the most innovation and we get the most goods and the cheapest prices.”

Category: General

Related Tags:

Email post

Roger McKinney

Nice couple of posts on the church and the poor.

I think a historical perspective is important, too. “Escape from Premature Death and Hunger” by Nobel Prize winning economist Robert William Fogel shows that in 1700 Europe, the level of farming technology allowed nations to produce enough food at maximum production for only 80% of the people to have enough to do a normal day’s work. 20% of people could do no more than beg for enough to sustain them because they couldn’t get enough food to work.

There are no poor in modern Europe and the North America like the poor in 1700, not because we give more to the poor, and not because of science, but because of better technology and investment.

China has not lifted over 300 million people from starvation poverty to relative wealth through charity, but by abandoning socialist principles and allowing a tiny space for entrepreneurs to work their magic.