Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Entrepreneurship

April 09, 2019

New Interview with Rev. Robert Sirico: ‘Socialism & Venezuela: What Can Catholics Learn?’

Fr. Robert Sirico was recently interviewed by Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J., on The Catholic Current. Their topic: ‘Socialism & Venezuela: What Can Catholics Learn?’ The conversation was wide ranging. It begins with a consideration of the disastrous socialist commitment to central planning and its present fruit of shortages, starvation, and totalitarianism in Venezuela. Continue Reading...
March 28, 2019

The state of entrepreneurship in America

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is primarily and rightly regarded as a work of political science. But the book is also replete with economic observations. One of the most significant was Tocqueville’s astonishment at “the spirit of enterprise” that characterized much of the country. Continue Reading...
December 07, 2018

From inmates to entrepreneurs: How work transforms the soul and spirit

With the promising (but now passing) prospect of a new wave of criminal justice reform circulating around Capitol Hill, discussions have reemerged as to how we might improve the justice system to better help and support our prison population (current and former) in rehabilitating their lives and avoiding the status quo of systematic detours. 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...
October 11, 2018

How Michigan’s licensing laws hinder the disadvantaged

Proponents of greater government intervention often argue that some freedoms are well worth sacrificing for greater social stability or public health and safety. Such is particularly the case with occupational licensing and other micro-regulations, where the government routinely imposes barriers with the stated aims of “protecting consumers” or “stabilizing industries.” Continue Reading...
October 05, 2018

D.C. restaurants fight back: When workers oppose a higher minimum wage

Last June, Washington, D.C. residents voted to pass Initiative 77, a ballot measure that raised the minimum wage for all restaurant workers, including those making tips. Driven by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), the policy was meant to ensure that “that no one has to experience the financial insecurity…that comes with being forced to live off tips.” Continue Reading...
September 27, 2018

Business Matters: Meaningful Work in the Modern Age

Like everything else in 2018, business has an emotional and often polarizing effect in our society. There are, of course, legitimate stories of business behaving badly. One high-profile example: the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica debacle that thrust the social media giant into the spotlight with a data breach affecting 87 million users. Continue Reading...