Popular culture presents the human race as competitors in a selfish struggle for the survival of the fittest. However, new scientific research finds that the human race has a natural tendency to cooperate—and that religion increases philanthropic giving and voluntarism during a crisis. Continue Reading...
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April 22, 2020
Rethinking free markets in an age of anxiety
On December 26, 1991, the USSR’s Supreme Soviet passed its final piece of legislation. Declaration Number 142-Н formally stated that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist as a sovereign entity. Continue Reading...
April 22, 2020
Acton Line podcast: Responding to a Harvard prof’s call to ban homeschooling
Homeschooling is growing in popularity. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education has shown that it’s grown at a rate of over 60% in the last decade, as many families are deciding that educating their children at home is better than sending them to public or private schools. Continue Reading...
April 22, 2020
Build yourself, build society
One of Christ’s best-known parables is the Parable of the Talents, but its familiarity disguises just how strange and unsettling its message is. It is a parable of a master who departs on a journey and entrusts three servants, each according to his ability, with his property. Continue Reading...
April 22, 2020
Cooperation vs. coercion amid COVID-19
As the COVID-19 crisis rolls on, many of America’s governors have continued to impose, extend or add new restrictions to stay-at-home orders, leading to increasingly arbitrary rule-making and growing criticism over the prudence and practicality of such measures. Continue Reading...
April 22, 2020
COVID-19, socialized medicine and ‘deaths of despair’
The American healthcare industry is undergoing a massive stress test known as the coronavirus. For months and years to come, analysts will be issuing their opinions about just how well that industry performed under the incredible, sudden surge of the pandemic. Continue Reading...
April 21, 2020
COVID-19 reminds us of the humanizing aspect of work
With “shelter-in-place” orders across the country during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, most employees are not allowed to enter their work places unless their work is considered “essential” by their state and local governments. Continue Reading...
April 20, 2020
What to do about China?
Crises are not only opportunities which should, to paraphrase Rahm Emmanuel, never be allowed go to waste. They also serve as clarifying moments. Unexpected events can shatter even the strongest consensus on a given topic. Continue Reading...
April 17, 2020
Weekend viewing: Watch ‘America Lost’ for free
For a few moments, filmmaker Christopher Rufo’s documentary America Lost seemed in danger of becoming an anachronism. But in the age of coronavirus shutdown orders, his portrait of life in the forgotten, jobless corners of America could not be more timely. Continue Reading...
April 17, 2020
Marx vs. the universal basic income
While a universal basic income has been advocated by everyone from Bernie Sanders to Charles Murray and Pope Francis, the name most associated with wealth redistribution is Marx. However, in a little-known writing Marx specifically opposed the UBI, calling it inefficient and counterproductive. Continue Reading...