If you ask most people why they support raising the minimum wage they’ll says it’s because it helps the poor. But as David Neumark, a scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco notes, numerous studies have shown that there is no statistically significant relationship between raising the minimum wage and reducing poverty. That finding may appear to be counterintuitive. After all, if poor people have low wages then increasing their wages should help reduce their poverty. To some...

What does it mean to be hungry in America? And how do we solve the issue of domestic hunger? To answer those questions, Congress created the bipartisan National Commissionon Hunger, a group tasked with providing “policy mendations to Congress and the USDA Secretary to more effectively use existing programs and funds of the Department of Agriculture bat domestic hunger and food insecurity.” mission recently released a report on their findings and mendations. According to the executive summary, “ This report...

The final Acton Lecture Series event of 2015 took place on December 10th as the Acton Institute joined with our friends at the Mackinac Centerto e Lawrence Reed, the president of the Foundation for Economic Education. Reed is always a favorite ALS speaker, and once again he did not disappoint; his address was entitled “Excuse Me, Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism”, and was based on his recently released book of the same title. Reed’s lecture is available to view...

As we close out the year, we want to thank our PowerBlog readers for reading and contributing to our blog. If you’re a new reader we encourage you to catch up by checking out our top 10 most popular posts for 2015: 1. A Guide to Laudato Si: A Section-By-Section Summary of Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment Joe Carter Pope Francis has released his eagerly anticipated encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’. While the document deserves a close reading,...

In today’s Acton Commentary, I have some further reflections on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The basic thrust of the piece is to encourage institutional thinking. We should expect that humans are going to institutionalize their goals because humans are natural institution builders, or culture makers. This is one of the animating concerns behind the ing volume The Church’s Social Responsibility as well. Even if younger generations now are more skeptical about “organized religion,” they will necessarily and eventually codify their...

The day after Christmas, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders asked on Twitter: “You have families out there paying 6, 8, 10 percent on student debt but you can refinance your homes at 3 percent. What sense is that?” My snarky tweet in response was, “Because you can foreclose on a house but you can’t repossess an MFA in creative writing.” A more thorough (and thoughtful) explanation is provided by Megan McArdle. She explains why loans secured (such a by a house)...

Frank S. Meyer The American political writer Frank S. Meyer is known as the father of “fusionism,” which is usually defined as the synthesis between traditionalist and libertarian thought in modern conservatism. In practical political terms, it brought together social conservatives, free-market advocates, and proponents of a strong national defense to fight against Communism abroad and the welfare state at home and formed the basis of Ronald Reagan’s governing coalition, as well as of think tanks like the Heritage Foundation,...

“There can never be a world without work,” says James Bruce in this week’s Acton Commentary. “We are made to work. We flourish when we do, and we suffer when we don’t.” Now, if we think about work’s purpose or goal, we will realize that work can never end. Philosophically, rational agents have specific conditions for genuine flourishing, one of which is work. The sociological data certainly support the claims that we are made for work, and that we suffer...

A new Pew Research Center analysis of survey data shows that younger generations tend to have more-positive views than their elders on a number of institutions that play a significant role in American society. Here are 7 figures you should know from the report: 1. Millennials’ rating of churches and other religious organizations dropped 18 percentage points from 2010 to 2015. In 2010, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) said churches have a positive impact on the country; today, only 55 percent...

We e guest writer Stephen Schmalhofer to the PowerBlog with this review of Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World’s Most Successful Companies by Charles Koch (Crown Business, 2015). Schmalhofer writes from New York City, where he works in technology and venture capital. He is a graduate of Yale University. Charles Koch’s Metaphysics of Business By Stephen Schmalhofer Adam Smith, that venerable a supporter of free enterprise, held businessmen in low regard, alleging that their...