Latest Posts

December 05, 2018

The Christian life and the common good

In this week’s Acton Commentary I show that the idea that “physical needs must be met before people experience spiritual needs” is older than Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs. The key to understanding how this might be lies in a distinction between the order of time and the order of being. Continue Reading...
December 05, 2018

Maslow, material needs, and the gospel

“Human beings are created with bodies and souls,” says Jordan Ballor in this week’s Acton Commentary. “We have both material and spiritual needs.” Earlier this year, Susan Mettes of Christianity Today critiqued the use of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a ministry tool. Continue Reading...
December 05, 2018

The return of ‘Tariff Man’, nemesis of the poor

“I am a tariff man,” said the Republican president. He based his strong support of tariffs on the idea that industries within the U.S. needed “protection” from foreign competition. A vocal opponent of free trade, his view was that America could tax its way to prosperity. Continue Reading...
December 04, 2018

What labor force participation is (and why it matters)

Note: This is post #103 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Labor force participation is an important concept connected to employment. The labor force participation rate is defined as the section of working population in the age group of 16-64 in the economy currently employed or seeking employment.  Continue Reading...
December 04, 2018

A free and virtuous society: Lessons from Les Misérables

Interpreting works of literature is always a dicey task—it’s all too easy to find the conclusions we want to find and turn authors into spokesmen for our own ideas. In these reflections on Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, I don’t claim that what I say is necessarily what Hugo himself intended. Continue Reading...