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Is there an intrinsic morality of the free market?
The debate over markets and morality has a long pedigree. Karl Marx thought, of course, that there was something intrinsically immoral about what he called capitalism based on his notion of “the labor theory of value” which contends that workers are alienated from what they produce by the private ownership of the means of production. A small ocean of ink has been spilt over that debate.Mitt de Tocqueville
“Not elegantly stated.” That’s how Mitt Romney described his words that 47 percent of voters were in the bag for President Obama, because they are “dependent on the government.” But Alexis de Tocqueville had a similar analysis.Desiccated Christianity
The decline in religious life has had pernicious effects on American culture more broadly. At the same time that most nuns were abandoning their habits and some priests their collars, we saw rising drug use and skyrocketing rates of divorcePolitics, social justice and the non-negotiables
Vice President Joseph Biden’s run-in with the Catholic Bishops over the “facts” of Obamacare once again revives the important question of how voters sort out the “non-negotiable” matters of conscience against those political and policy issues which are properly debatable.The dignity of paying
The right to vote and to be represented should also be acknowledged as having the responsibility to invest in, to have some stake in, the unique political experiment that is the United States.Protestants in praise of Catholic social teaching
When Mitt Romney named Paul Ryan as his running mate for the GOP presidential ticket, Mr. Romney made sure that this fall’s election would be historic on a variety of levels. While many are focusing on the economic gravitas that Rep. Ryan brings to the race, others are noting the religious variety apparent at the top of each major party’s ticket. Mitt Romney is a Mormon, President Obama is a mainline Protestant, and the vice-presidential nominees, Ryan and Joe Biden, share a common bond as professing Roman Catholics.Angola prison, moral rehabilitation, and the things ahead
Inmate Jerome Derricks. Photo: Erin Oswalt for Acton InstituteVincent de Paul, welfare statist?
In their zeal to recruit St. Vincent for the Democratic Party, leftists besmirch the reputation of one of history’s great exemplars of Christian charity.Obama Administration Leaves Human Trafficking Victims Out in the Cold
Imagine a teen girl: After a fight with her mom, she takes off. It happens a lot; maybe her mom drinks too much. The teenager’s winter afternoon walk leads nowhere in particular, until a man in a car stops. He asks if he can buy her something warm to drink, telling her she is too pretty to be out alone on a cold day. The compliment is enough to get her in the car. She’s just become a trafficked person, snared into the sex trade.My Memories Of 9/11, And The End Of Freedom
I was in Europe at the time. My schedule called for a visit to Paris on September 10 followed by a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Slovakia, then speeches in Warsaw and Amsterdam on welfare reform and economic freedom. My flight from Paris to Slovakia was uneventful and, returning from lunch in downtown Bratislava, I thought how the city had changed in the decade since I had last visited: the buildings were cleaner, the food better, the service professional and pleasant, the people engaging—not glum as I had noted previously.The Collapse of Europe's Welfare State Exposes its False Hopes -- Is America Next?
As the Eurozone crisis deepened this spring and summer, media outlets increasingly issued gut-wrenching reports on what were labeled “economic suicides.”Mike Rowe and Manual Labor
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney reads a letter from Mike Rowe. Courtesy @Rick_Gorka