Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'Lester DeKoster'

Lessons from the Puritans for a post-COVID world

America is still slowly reopening and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and restrictions. Over the past year, our nation’s divisions were amplified. Polarization reared its ugly head, manifesting deep-seated hostilities across and among families, churches, and political parties. Continue Reading...

How does human work further human dignity?

For all the claims regarding the subjectivity of economics, including schools of thought that emphasize subjective value theory and the descriptive rather than the normative, much mainstream economic thought focuses on what seems to be objective and measurable. Continue Reading...

Celebrating the work of delivery drivers

Online shopping has soared in the wake of COVID-19, boosting e-commerce giants like Amazon and Walmart, and creating record growth for UPS and FedEx. While some question the moral legitimacy of these gains, others celebrate the market’s ability to respond to complex demands, innovating products and adapting supply chains to meet countless human needs. Continue Reading...

The cramped morality of trade protectionism

“If a product is seen only as the opportunity for work, it is certain that the anxieties of protectionists are well founded.” –Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Sophisms Drawing inspiration from a 1847 essay by the inimitable Frédéric Bastiat, economist Donald Boudreaux tackles a popular argument from today’s trade protectionists: namely, “that protectionism is justified if enough consumers or voters are willing to pay higher prices in order to help workers.” Continue Reading...

Brains and brawn: Does manual labor belong in the modern economy?

As economic prosperity continues to spread, and as the American economy completes its transition into the age of information, manual labor is increasingly cast down in the popular imagination. When our youth navigate and graduate from high school, they receive a range of pressures to attend four-year colleges and pursue various “white-collar” careers, whether in finance or law or tech or the academy. Continue Reading...