Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Economics and Social Problems

May 26, 2021

Why capitalism is worth conserving

Amid the waves of populism and protectionism sweeping across the American Right, capitalism has become a favorite target of many prominent conservatives, blamed for the decline of religion, the demise of the family, and the erosion of civil society. Continue Reading...
April 23, 2021

The fallacy of capitalism’s ‘race to the bottom’

The Biden administration proposes a global minimum tax on corporations to end the “global race to the bottom.” Leaving aside the wisdom of letting France tax U.S.-based corporations, this phrase recalls one of the regnant canards of our time: Capitalism inevitably lowers living standards and grinds people down into poverty. Continue Reading...
December 02, 2020

Walter Williams, RIP

The world has lost a voice for logic, liberty, and love of the U.S. Constitution. Economist Walter Williams died overnight at the age of 84. Williams worked his way out of grinding poverty in the Philadelphia housing projects to chair George Mason University’s economics department, author 10 books and more than 150 publications, and become one of the most recognized commentators of the last four decades. Continue Reading...
September 10, 2020

Economic freedom means longer life, lower infant mortality, and less poverty: Report

Economic freedom is strongly tied to human flourishing, longevity, and even rates of survival, according to a new study. The Fraser Institute released its 2020 “Economic Freedom of the World” report on Thursday and, once again, the Canadian think tank found a strong correlation between free-market economics, prosperity, and overall levels of public health and well-being. Continue Reading...
August 25, 2020

Karl Marx’s greatest lesson

Karl Marx famously concluded in his 1845 Theses On Feuerbach with his eleventh thesis: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” How this change from analysis to activism can be justified in light of Marx’s own materialist conception of history is an enduring puzzle. Continue Reading...
July 07, 2020

Evolving between two worlds

In the latest issue of The New Yorker Larissa MacFarquhar has a deeply researched and beautifully written story, “How Prosperity Transformed the Falklands.” It chronicles the history of the Falkland Islands from the early settlement of the then-uninhabited islands to the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982, as well as the economic transformation after that conflict. Continue Reading...