Values and Capitalism – serie

As debates over climate change rage in Washington and Americans become ever more conscientious about going green, Christians are increasingly concerned about the proper relationship between faith and environmentalism. Are human beings a drain on God's perfect creation? Do we really own the land we live on and the plants and animals that sustain us? In Mere Environmentalism, Steven F. Hayward provides an insightful reflection on the relationship between humans and the natural world and offers a Christian approach to environmental policy.

Popular opinion would have us believe that America's free market system is driven by greed and materialism, resulting in gross inequalities of wealth, destruction of the environment, and other social ills. Even proponents of capitalism often refer to the free market as simply a 'lesser evil' whose faults are preferable to those of social democracy or communism. But what if the conventional understanding of capitalism as corrupt and unprincipled is wrong? What if the free market economy actually reinforces Christian values? In Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism, Arthur C. Brooks and Peter Wehner explore how America's system of democratic capitalism both depends upon and cultivates an intricate social web of families, churches, and communities. Far from oppressing and depriving individuals, the free market system uniquely enables Americans to exercise vocation and experience the dignity of self-sufficiency, all while contributing to the common good. The fruits of this system include the alleviation of poverty, better health, and greater access to education than at any other time in human history-but also a more significant prosperity: the flourishing of the human soul.

Helping the poor is a question central to American life. Partially driven by America's Judeo-Christian heritage, Americans believe we possess enough wealth to provide some minimum basic standard of living for all and genuinely desire to help the least among us. We are the most generous nation on earth, spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually through private giving, corporate philanthropy, government aid, and other forms of charity. And yet, despite these efforts, international and domestic poverty persist.In From Prophecy to Charity: How to Help the Poor, Lawrence M. Mead critiques the philosophical presuppositions of past and current endeavors to alleviate poverty and provides a framework to guide future efforts based on what has been proven to actually help those in need: charity rooted in love.

The panic inspired by the recent financial crisis was fueled by an incomplete understanding of economic history. In a free market system, financial downturns inevitably accompany economic prosperity-but the overall trend is upward progress in living standards and wealth. In Boom and Bust, Alex J. Pollock argues that the free market, despite its ups and downs, offers greater opportunities for growth than any other economic system-including gains in health and longevity, better jobs, broader access to education, and individual liberty.

Abundant Energy is a concise guide to the role of energy in modern society and the ways energy policy affects life in the United Sates and around the world. Accessible and engaging in style, this brief volume introduces readers to an array of key energy concepts, including affordability, abundance, reliability, security, independence, and environmental impacts.

Why do we have a social security program in the United States? How does it work? Does it need reform? This concise, readable volume answers common questions about social security and introduces proposals for reform, including a dedicated social security tax, automatic pension plan enrollment, increasing the eligibility age, and a flat dollar benefit for each retiree.

Endowed with the authority to enforce justice, government is a necessary prerequisite to human flourishing. Citizens rightfully bear the responsibility to contribute to the existence of just government through the rendering of taxes. Because tax policy is also a reflection of values, citizens in a democratic society should be concerned with how taxes are collected and spent. In Real Tax Burden: More than Dollars and Cents, Alan Viard and Alex Brill explain everything you need to know to understand taxes in America today. The authors describe who pays what and why, the implications of the current system, and provide a vision for reform that is simple, effective, and consistent with our values.

For almost 10,000 years of recorded history, most people had to eke out a living in pain and difficulty. But today, the deep poverty that was the global norm for most of human history is almost entirely foreign to citizens of the developed world. What caused this burst of prosperity? What has been its impact? In Economic Growth: Unleashing the Potential of Human Flourishing, Edd S. Noell, Stephen L. S. Smith, and Bruce G. Webb make a comprehensive case for economic growth, equipping readers with an understanding of not only its pragmatic benefits but also its moral dimensions. The authors offer empirical evidence from the past two centuries showing the relationship between growth and human well-being, greater global income equality, and environmental improvements and sustainability. They make the case that economic growth is key to lifting societies from dire poverty to prosperity and holds the promise of sustaining unreached levels of human flourishing.

For well over two centuries, the United States Constitution has served as a charter for a free, democratic government and for a country that has risen from a dicey political experiment to an economic and political superpower. In the history of the world, there is nothing like it. In The Constitution: Understanding America's Founding Document, Michael S. Greve explains how to think seriously about the United States Constitution and constitutions in general. What are constitutions supposed to do, and what can they accomplish? Why was the specific form of the Constitution-including both its structure and its rights catalogue-so important? Why is the Constitution so difficult to amend? Greve provides a fresh perspective on the Constitution's structure and our enduring constitutional controversies, from federalism and the separation of powers to slavery, civil rights, and the administrative state.