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New Year's Day Reading Suggestion: Michael Novak's City on a Hill

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Here's Michael Novak's 2014 essay Caritapolis: A New Global Vision for Christian Social Thought . Novak explains that it would be a shame for people to progress in economic and political liberty but use that liberty to "live like pigs, enslaved to our desires, without reflection and deliberation[.]" He emphasizes "for intermediate steps toward Caritapolis that are of highest importance": cultural humility, the regulative idea of truth, the dignity of the human person, and solidarity.  First, we must understand that our selves and cultures have more than a few blemishes and warts. "We've got it right, so you fools watch and see how it's done" isn't the most winsome message. I'm a big fan of Western civilization and the United States in particular, and when given the option, people leave more traditional societies for the West at their earliest opportunity . Second, Novak points to "the regulative idea of truth." Maybe we wo...
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Politics is the Mind-Killer: Beware of Simple Stories Backed By Graphs

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About eighteen years ago, Eliezer Yudkowsky explained how " Politics is the Mind-Killer ." This was before social media really took off. Since he first wrote, social media sites have been firehose of evidence supporting Yudkowsky's claim. One of my favorite recurring themes on X (formerly Twitter) are graphs that tell a shocking story but that, on further inspection, are comparing an inflation-adjusted series to a non-inflation-adjusted series. Another favorite responds, "but what about inflation?!" to a tweet making comparisons across time and very clearly pointing out that the numbers are adjusted for inflation. Corey DeAngelis gets this a lot. Fortunately, there is a cure: just follow Jeremy "Adjusted for Inflation" Horpedahl  to innoculate yourself. And read his posts on Economist Writing Every Day .
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Make More. Take Less.

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That's my simple, four-word message to anyone who wants to improve the world. Overwhelmed by an endless list of problems and feeling powerless to do anything about them? What can you possibly do about it all? How do you walk by faith and not by sight? As it happens, you can do a lot more than you think even though it might look like a lot less than you think. As co-blogger Caleb and will explain in our forthcoming and available for preorder book Mere Economics , you can... Make More . We can't feed, clothe, and shelter people without food, clothing, and shelter. Find ways to make more of what God has called you to make, whether it be food, clothing, shelter, art, economics lectures, audited financial statements, or non-nutritive cereal varnishes by working smarter, working harder, or both. By doing so, you make things a little easier for (say) aspiring architects. Your name may not be on them, but the buildings they design and build some day will be part of your legacy. Take ...
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