[Part 1 of 12 here] In the 1950s and ‘60s, blacks were winning the civil rights they should have had all along, but in the midst of this positive trend, increasingly aggressive minimum wage regulations and extensive welfare programs were beginning to displace paratively free market of labor and private charity. munities flooded with this state-sponsored mode of redistributive justice now face far higher levels injustice in the form of unpunished crimes munity breakdown than before the redistributive justice arrived....

As a new feature for the Journal of Markets & Morality, the folks at Journaltalk have helped us create discussion pages for the editorial and each of the articles of our most recent issue, vol. 17, no. 1 (Spring 2014). The issue is ing in print in the next few weeks but already published online. While all articles require a subscription (or a small fee per article), this issue’s editorial on the state of academic peer review is open access....

[Part 1 is here.] mon reading of Western history holds that the principles of the free economy grew out of the secular Enlightenment and had little to do with Christianity. This is mistaken. The free economy (and we can speak more broadly here of the free society) didn’t spring from the soil of the secular Enlightenment, much less, as some imagine, from a Darwinian, survival-of-the-fittest, dog-eat-dog philosophy of life. The free economy sprang from the soil of Christian Medieval Europe...

The much-touted Lego Movie drops on disc today, and before you pick up your copy, I encourage you to remember that “Everything Really Is Awesome.” Emmet’s words to Lord Business apply to us all: You don’t have to be the bad guy. You are the most talented, most interesting, and most extraordinary person in the universe. And you are capable of amazing things. Because you are the Special. And so am I. And so is everyone. The prophecy is made...

[Part 1 is here.] The free economy frees entrepreneurs to create new wealth for themselves and others, which brings us to the issue of consumption. In his book Crunchy Cons, conservative author Rod Dreher describes consumerism this way: “Consumerism fetishizes individual choice, and sees its expansion as unambiguous progress. A culture guided by consumerist values is one that es technology without question and prizes efficiency…. A consumerist society encourages its members both to find and express their personal identity through...

[Part 1 is here.] Even a cursory look at the annual list of the freest and least free economies in the world suggests a strong correlation between economic freedom and the prosperity of its citizens, including its poorest citizens. But there’s another correlation that tends to capture the attention of those making a cultural critique of the free economy. They note that America is economically free, and that it’s experiencing cultural decay, so they conclude the first causes the second....

What would it take to make a society fully just rather than merely settling for moving society toward justice? In this week’s Acton Commentary, John Addison Teevan considers that question and how we can respond to social justice demands in biblical terms. Seeking the peace and harmony (Shalom) of God as the highest good for man, Keller indicates that doing justice means “to live in a way that generates a munity where human beings can flourish … The only way...

While in college, did you ever join the Catholic Student Association, Campus Crusade for Christ, or some other student religious organization? If so, you might want to leave that off your resume. A new study in the sociology journal Social Currents found that applicants who expressed a religious identity were 26 percent less likely to receive a response from employers. For the experiment, the researchers sent out resumes panies in the South from fictional recent graduates of flagship universities located...

: a language teacher and a surrogate. She’s rented out her womb several times, as a way to help mainly gay couples have children. She says being pregnant is rather easy for her, but even she has some issues with the process. [Jessica] had a less positive experience with a third set of New Yorkers seeking her services. She signed a nondisclosure agreement, which prevents her from naming the couple, and will only say they are “well-known,” “mega rich” and...

I love babies. Andbecause I love babies, I love economic growth. I’ve explained that connection several times on this blog already, but there is another oft-overlooked way that economic growth helps babies. Inthe early 1900s, there weremore babies than parents could feed. Illegitimate infants suffered high rates of mortality from murder (usually by the mother) or neglect (as wards of the state). Today, a hundred years later, the situation is drastically different. As Megan McCardle notes,adoptable infants are so rare...