Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Economics

August 07, 2013

What Distributists Get Wrong

Last week, we took a look at what distributists get right in terms of economics, through the eyes of David Deavel at Intercollegiate Review. Now, Deavel discusses where distributism goes off the rails in that same series. Continue Reading...
August 02, 2013

How Improving Vocabulary Improves Human Flourishing

One of the core principles of the Acton Institute is commitment to wealth creation since material impoverishment undermines the conditions that allow humans to flourish. We consider helping our fellow citizens to escape material deprivation to be one of the most morally significant economic concerns of our age. Continue Reading...
July 31, 2013

The Growth Of The Global Middle Class

It’s true: the middle-class is growing, globally. Here in the U.S., we keep hearing dire warnings about a shrinking middle class, but not across the globe. Alan Murray, president of The Pew Research Center, says witnessing its third great surge of middle-class growth. Continue Reading...
July 30, 2013

Economic Mobility and the Cleveland Plan

Anthony Dent has a clever plan to improve economic mobility: move strategically unimportant federal departments and agencies to economically impoverished cities and towns across America. Republicans would support it because, well, they hate DC and favor “real” America. Continue Reading...
July 29, 2013

The Death Of Detroit’s Middle Class

Detroit is bankrupt. The city government can’t pay its bills. Scores of empty houses and garbage-strewn lots greet anyone who drives down once-bustling streets. There is a lot of finger-pointing, and no easy answers. Continue Reading...
July 25, 2013

6 Bad Arguments About Income Inequality

Earlier this week I claimed you rarely hear progressives argue that income inequality is a problem since for them it just is an injustice. But there’s another reason you rarely hear them make arguments about why income inequality is morally wrong: their actual arguments are terrible. Continue Reading...
July 23, 2013

Why social mobility matters—and income inequality does not

When it comes to household income, progressives tend to start with their intuitive understanding of fairness (i.e., some people have a lot more income than others), move to the solution (redistribution of income and wealth from those who have more to those who have less), and only then to develop a metric that justifies implementing their solution: income inequality. Continue Reading...
July 22, 2013

Detroit: A Collapse of Real Integrity

Douglas Wilson has an interesting take on Detroit’s bankruptcy: “like a drunk trying to make it to the next lamp post.” Why this analogy? Wilson says we first have to understand that Detroit is inevitably in a defaulting situation; the question now is what kind of default. Continue Reading...