by Winston Hottman The concept of private property comes natural to most children. After mama and dada one of the first words we learn to wield is mine (or to be more precise, Mine!!). The sense of ownership develops rather easily. Sharing, on the other hand, is more difficult to learn. Parents typically begin teaching us how to share by going the authoritarian route, i.e. involuntary sharing. The procedure involves … Continue reading
by Kirk Spencer Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people? Now he … Continue reading
By Winston Hottman What can you do to fight poverty in your community? In a recent article Jennifer Marshall, director of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, explains how the gospel creates the framework for a holistic approach to addressing the problem, an approach that looks beyond handouts to full human flourishing: Truly effective compassion means striving for human flourishing and seeking the conditions that make it possible. The good … Continue reading
By Winston Hottman What keeps the poorest of the poor stuck in poverty? In an article at First Things, George Weigel summarizes four root causes, as identified in a book by Paul Colliers, The Bottom Billion: Collier, who studied the varying impacts of development assistance at the World Bank before teaching economics at Oxford, lists four traps that hold the bottom billion down. There is the natural resource trap, in … Continue reading
*Posted by Winston Hottman From National Review Online: On Saturday, Louisianas EBT system malfunctioned, causing spending limits on users food-stamp cards temporarily to be lifted. In two counties at least, recipients noticed the error, spread the word, and set about trying to check out as much as they could fit into shopping carts. At Walmarts in the towns of Springhill and Mansfield, employees called corporate headquarters to ask what they … Continue reading
*Posted by Joe Wooddell The so-called Fair Minimum Wage Act (H.R. 1010 or S. 460) would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 over two years, and then progressively each year based on inflation (the consumer price index). Who could possibly be opposed to a law requiring employers to pay the nations poorest a little more? Those who care about the poor, thats who. Lets keep the math … Continue reading
*Guest post by Michael Cooper. Michael serves as Assistant to the President at Criswell College where he is alsopursuing a degree inBiblical Studies and Languages. In a 2012 New York Times article entitledStrong Marriages and Economies an intriguing point was made: The bottom-line message is that what happens in the home does not stay at home; rather, the size of families, and their stability and quality, has important implications for … Continue reading
*Posted by Joe Wooddell Ma and Pa in the Little House on the Prairie series were poor, but they were not oppressed. No one owed them anything. No one was systematically mistreating them. They settled and cultivated some land, worked hard, and slowly built up to modest means. Almonzo Wilders family in another book of that series (Farmer Boy) was better off. They worked smarter and had better luck (being … Continue reading
*Posted by Kirk Spencer First the Dodo marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (the exact shape doesnt matter, it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no One, two, three, and away, but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. … Continue reading
*Posted by Kirk Spencer As Americans, we are held together by our common life, our shared fortunes and the sacred honor of being part of such a great country. Beyond these ties, we have the strong political bands of our constitution. This certainly does not mean that we dont have our differences. We certainly doas we always have. This is especially clear during election cycles. But even in the midst … Continue reading
