Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

January 06, 2014

A Letter on Work and Worth

The following is a letter written in response to a post from my friend Brad Littlejohn on the topic of the minimum wage.  Dear Brad, Thank you for your thoughtful and substantive engagement on the question of the minimum wage. Continue Reading...
December 30, 2013

The Christmas Tree as a Source of Wonder

Related to some recent discussions about the market for Christmas trees, an irreducibly commercial aspect of the holiday, I ran across this delightful post about a little-known poem by T.S. Eliot, “The Cultivation of Christmas Trees.” Continue Reading...
December 27, 2013

Keep Calm and Christmas On

In this week’s commentary, I examine the link between delayed gratification and civilization. I use the image of children waking up on Christmas morning to a cornucopia of presents under the tree. Continue Reading...
December 27, 2013

Fr. Sirico on PovertyCure

Forbes contributor Jerry Bower recently interviewed Fr. Robert Sirico about the documentary film series PovertyCure: Jerry: “Let’s talk a little bit about PovertyCure. Where did this idea come from? What was the original conception of PovertyCure?” Continue Reading...
December 26, 2013

Utopia is a Relative Concept

Shannon Love reminds us that what great-great-grandparents would consider utopia is what we consider modern life: Star Trek is often used as a starting point for musing about this or that utopia because everything in Star Trek seems so wonderful. Continue Reading...
December 20, 2013

O Tannenbaum and Fair Trade

A couple of further points in reply to Micah Mattix’s response on buying Christmas trees, based on his original post here. 1) I think Mattix’s characterization of the buyer as “selfish” goes a bit too far, and is not an accurate characterization of a good deal of market activity. Continue Reading...
December 20, 2013

5 Minute Explainer: Competitive Federalism

Concepts you should know about explained in five minutes (or less). Leo Linbeck III, President and CEO of Aquinas Companies, provides an explanation of competitive federalism and how competition and governance relate in society. Continue Reading...