The State can never substitute the family especially in the formation of children. Sociologist Carle Zimmerman notes that “the parent who prevents a baby from swallowing a safety pin, keeps him from high places, warns a child daily about crossing the street” and other protective functions, “does more protecting of a family member than the … Read more
Throughout the Middle Ages, monopolies were regarded with universal disapproval. Julius Kirshner lists three reasons: 1. By enhancing the price, monopolists sold something for more than it was worth, which was against the idea of equality underlying commutative justice. 2. Exploitation in whatever form was against the precept of charity and brotherly love. 3. … Read more
The ability of huge companies to secure massive government contracts through lobbying and cronyism is not a development of the free market but a distortion of it. It is a kind of corporate welfare that ends up redistributing wealth not creating it. Scholar Samuel Gregg explains that crony deals redistribute “risk in a given society … Read more
There are many who judge the health of the economy on the basis of the stock market. With markets reaching record highs, some see this as a sign of an ever-illusive “economic recovery.” However, such criteria can be deceptive. There are a host of other indicators that reveal that things are getting worse – and … Read more
The student revolts of 1968 failed to overthrow the university administrations they fought against or establish any kind of political movement. However, they did succeed in changing society profoundly. Historian Fernand Braudel writes: “Herbert Marcuse who, without wishing to, became the guru of this revolution was quite justified in saying (23 March 1979) that ‘it … Read more
In reply to my story about artificial Christmas trees that can be delivered to your home in boxes, I received a reply from a dear friend in faraway Austria. His story reflects something of what we have lost in today’s commercialism of Christmas. He tells how he celebrated Christmas Eve with his wife and 15 … Read more
In the words of one reader, the book, Return to Order, targets those who “grieve for the nation.” I could not have put better since it was indeed written for those who have the vision to look beyond their own self-interest and are concerned about the state of the nation. The difficult question is: Where … Read more
I have wondered how student groups would react to Return to Order. After all, the socio-economic concepts in the book are very conservative and traditional. And the modern myth is that students are neither conservative nor traditional. It was hard to know what to expect. Such concerns were in mind at the first student-only meeting/signing … Read more
How many times have you seen products being promoted as “local” and yet it seems just as industrial as any other product? The label “local” has become just another marketing tool to sell you more. Some people define local rather arbitrarily as products within a fifty or sixty-mile radius from where they live. What really … Read more
Modern economics tends to reduce economic activity to formulae and equations. This is not the true subject matter of economics. Economic activities deal with human actions that are not predicable and thus cannot be reduced to the equations of an exact science. As economic historian Odd Langholm states: “The subject matter of economics is properly … Read more
