Christianomics: A blog on economics, politics, and law

The common defense of communist economies is, "Yeah, but that's not real communism." Enter The Pilgrims. The people that risked their lives to sail across the Atlantic Ocean on little sail boats to be free of the Church of England. They were as homogeneous as a congregation could be. This is also a bit redundant but I think it's worth mentioning that this was back in 1623. Think of all our complaints about the younger generations: they need participation trophies, are lazy, spoiled and addicted to their phones/social media/video games. The pilgrims didn't have any of these distractions. And yet even they couldn't prosper under communism. Fortunately, William Bradford recognized the importance of property rights and that's something to be thankful for. Here is a condensed summary of the Pilgrims story: https://www.heritage.org/.../pilgrims-beat-communism-free... And a longer, more thorough summary https://www.hoover.org/.../how-private-property-saved...

Simply put, the minimum wage should be 0. And for you Bernie Sanders fans, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden agree with me.  But that didn’t stop Florida from becoming the next state to require a minimum wage of $15. Like all recent increases in the minimum wage this too was touted as, "a huge win for the working people of the Sunshine State!"(1) At first it seems simple. Well-meaning people want to help the poor by forcing businesses to pay them more money. If you look at the economy in a vacuum that would play out. But life is not so simple. The topics of prices and Karl Marx’ defunct Labor Theory of Value are worth spending a whole essay on, but suffice it to say that the price of goods and services are based on how much the customer is willing to spend.(2) And in this particular instance the goods and services are the employee and the customer is actually the business itself. Raising the minimum wage makes the employee more expensive. And when you make something more expensive...

  My governor is threatening tighter restrictions on mask wearing and event attendance limits. To back up these restrictions he is promising to charge violators with fines and misdemeanors. This has of course spooked the locals and that’s why I just spent $200 On-groceries-I-don’t-need-but-might-need-in-the-next-four-months. That’s $200 I can’t invest in a 401K. That’s $200 I can’t use for Christmas shopping. That’s $200 I won’t have on hand for emergencies. Now granted, if none of these emergencies happen, my investment will balance out and the money I spent today will turn into money that I save in the future. But I only have that option because I was able to get ahead of the panic and I had an extra $200 in the bank. But what about the people who don’t get ahead of the panic or don’t have the cash on hand? This is the true devastation of the lockdowns. They disproportionately impact those who also are least able to prepare or react. So what’s the solution? Well on an individual ...

There has been a new (to me) pro-choice argument in the year of 2020. It goes something like this. If we ban abortions, we’ll be back to the 1970s when dozens of women died from illegal back-alley abortions.(1) Therefore, voting for Biden-Harris is actually the pro-life vote because pro-choice administrations support welfare policies that lead to fewer abortions. Cute story, but it is not true. Abortions have steadily decreased under every president since H.W. Bush. This is due to a growing mobilization of the pro-life crowd to engage the culture. During the Clinton administration there is a huge drop, but it turns out that is because California decided to stop counting abortions.(2) Next in the data there is a reversal during W. Bush, which looks interesting until you realized that bump takes place during the housing crash, so again no real surprises there. So this idea is dumb and dead on its face. But what if we ignore these facts and pretend the story was true? Would it be better t...

I voted for president, senator, representative, mayor, three city council members, and five school board members. At the time of this writing I am 0 for 11. By the time this presidential election is resolved it’s highly likely that I’ll be 0 for 12. So….now what? "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." - 1 Time 2: 1-4 The second thing, is I plan to get more involved in my local government. Personally I have a new resolution: to attend at least one City Council meeting per quarter, and to attend one School Board meeting per year. While most of the focus is on D.C., it is actually local politics that plays a far greater role in our daily live...

  "In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”- Acts 20:35 I see Christians on the liberal side of the political spectrum pointing to verses like Acts 20:25, Luke 3:11, Galatians 6:2, 1 John 3:17, and Leviticus 25:35-38 as evidence that Christians should be voting for socialist politicians and policies. When I ask why they think socialism is the answer I’m told they believe we should be generous and that society is better when we take care of the needs of our neighbors. This results in less crime, homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health problems. Those are perfectly fair and reasonable things to want. In fact they are so reasonable that I, a firm believer in the superiority of free markets, agree across the board. So what’s the problem? The problem is these are merely goals. Goals with no clarification on the means of achi...