In our increasingly polarized society, it’s often difficult for conservatives and progressives to mon ground. It’s even more rare for policy experts on the left and the right to find proposals that they can jointly agree on. So it’s rather remarkable that just such a diverse group has created a detailed plan for reducing poverty and increasing economic mobility. With support from the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, a group of scholars “worked together for more than a...

Ask most Americans why religious liberty is considered the “first freedom” and they’ll likely say it’s because es first in the Bill of Rights. While technically true (it es first) that wasn’t the intention of the original framers of the Constitution The original Bill of Rights included two other amendments that were listed ahead of what we now consider the “First Amendment” but that failed to be ratified. If the placement of “first” on the list was a mere historical...

Imagine you’re at the checkout line at the supermarket and the clerk asks how much e your family earns each year. Offended, you ask why that is any of her business. “We need to know to determine how much sales tax you need to pay,” the checker politely explains. “If you’re classified as the ‘working poor’ you need to pay more sales tax.” “I think you have that backwards,” you helpfully add. “You mean the working poor need to pay...

This is just a brief note, a cohortative: Let us pray! For those tempted to disdain prayer in favor of work in alleviating the ills of the world, I mend C.S. Lewis’ essay, “Work and Prayer.” There he writes, among other things, “Prayers are not always—in the crude, factual sense of the world—’granted’. This is not because prayer is a weaker kind of causality, but because it is a stronger kind.” From of old prayer has been recognized, in John...

Conversations about justice tend to quickly devolve into debates over top-down solutions or mechanistic policy prescriptions.But whilethe government plays an important role in maintaining order and cultivating conditions for society, we mustn’t forget that justice begins with right relationships at the local and personal levels. In Episode 4 of For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, Evan Koons explorestopic from the perspective of hospitality, a theme we find throughout the Biblical story. How do weapproach and treat...

In an email last week, GMOInside.org – a coalition opposed to genetically engineered and genetically modified organisms, which counts shareholder activist group As You Sow a member – blasted an email chock-a-block with material for two previous posts (here and here). And es a third PowerBlog post about the activists’ effort to roll back Senate support for the Safe and Affordable Food Labeling (SAFE) Act, dubbed the DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know Act – get it?). Readers...

In his book Living the Truth, the German Thomist Josef Pieper presents the following thesis: All obligation is based upon being. Reality is the foundation of ethics. The good is that which is in accord with reality. He who wishes to know and to do the good must turn his gaze upon the objective world of being. Not upon his own “ideas”, not upon his “conscience”, not upon “values”, not upon arbitrarily established “ideals” and “models”. He must turn away...

There are ten vital foundational lessons that should be taught in any introductory course on economics, says Don Boudreaux, a professor of economics at George Mason University. The first three lessons on his list are, (1) [T]he world is full of both desirable and undesirable unintended consequences – consequences that are largely invisible but that even a course in ‘mere’ principles of economics gives us great vision that enables us to “see,” (2) intentions are not results; (3) our world...

It was a big fish. The poor people wanted to eat it. Everyone else wanted to choose whether to eat the big fish. The crusader sharks against genetic engineering stole the big fish. The poor people stayed hungry. The other people could not choose to eat the big fish. They had hunger cramps in their stomachs. – Apologies to Ernest Hemingway e to this: GMOInside.org is celebrating supermarket chain Costco Wholesale’s decision to refrain from selling AquaBounty Technology’s genetically engineered...

Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight the latest numbers we need...