Public Policy

November 17, 2016

Now that Republicans control the government, here’s what we can expect

Because of the recent election, Republicans now control the White House, the U.S. Senate (51 percent), the House of Representatives (54 percent), 31 of the 50 state governorships (62 percent), and a record 67 of the 98 partisan state legislative chambers in the nation (68 percent). Continue Reading...

November 10, 2016

Trump’s first ‘Hundred Day’ economic plan

In a radio address on July 24, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to the 100-day session of the 73rd United States Congress between March 9 and June 17, a session that produced a record-breaking volume of new laws. Continue Reading...

November 04, 2016

Why great men are almost always bad men

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” is the most famous quote by the English Catholic historian Sir John Dalberg-Acton. But what exactly did he mean by it? That particular quote comes from a letter to Bishop Creighton in which Lord Acton explains that historians should condemn murder, theft, and violence whether committed by an individual, the state, or the Church. Continue Reading...

October 31, 2016

Do the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes?

During her presidential campaign, Sec. Hillary Clinton has repeatedly said she’d implement a tax system in which the wealthy “pay their fair share in taxes.” Expecting the rich to pay what is “fair” is not asking to much of them. Continue Reading...

October 14, 2016

Sed contra: Taxation is theft

Over at the Libertarian Christian Institute, Jamin Hübner engages my reflection on taxation and Sam Gregg’s book, For God and Profit, with his sed contra: “But what if the ‘taxation is theft’ creed is consistent with both Christian and libertarian ideas, and that all things considered, taxation really is theft? Continue Reading...

October 13, 2016

Does the government do too much or too little?

“There are many things government can’t do—many good purposes it must renounce,” said Lord Acton. “It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. Continue Reading...

October 10, 2016

Is taxation theft?

Last week, before the most recent news about Donald Trump and the current US presidential campaign burst onto the scene, Think Christian ran a short reflection of mine on the question of taxation. Continue Reading...

October 03, 2016

Love is the Truth

This ad perhaps captures Deirdre McCloskey’s observation that “love runs consumption” better than anything I have yet seen. Coca Cola – What Goes Around comes Around from THE APA on Vimeo. Continue Reading...

September 30, 2016

‘You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion’

“You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion; they would not stir a step without you.” John Wesley (1703–1791) was talking about the slave trade and was impugning the buyers and owners of slaves as equally culpable as those who captured and sold them, those who “would not stir a step” without buyers for their wares. Continue Reading...

September 28, 2016

Are libertarians too anti-pollution?

“There are no solutions,” says economist Thomas Sowell. “There are only trade-offs.” Sowell’s claim is especially true when it comes to the issue of pollution. We have no solution that will allow us to eliminate all pollution, so we are forced to make trade-offs, such as exchanging a certain level of pollution for economic growth. Continue Reading...

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