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My second guest stint with EconLog ends this month. I have about a week left and will take requests: what would you like to read about?
My second guest stint with EconLog ends this month. I have about a week left and will take requests: what would you like to read about?
Nov 22 2014
I've been re-reading some of Herbert Spencer's works, for a LibertyMatters discussion that began with a very insightful article of George H. Smith. In Spencer's The Study of Sociology I've stumbled upon this rather amusing quotation that I'd like to share: the difficulties of altering the settled routine are, if not in...
Nov 21 2014
If life were classic Dungeons & Dragons, many opponents of immigration would be Lawful Neutral. The law is the law; good or bad, everyone has to obey the rules. In his defense of Obama's deferred action policy, Ilya Somin points out that Lawful Neutral Americans should favor non-enforcement of U.S. immi...
Nov 21 2014
My second guest stint with EconLog ends this month. I have about a week left and will take requests: what would you like to read about?
READER COMMENTS
dullgeek
Nov 21 2014 at 12:33pm
CS Lewis wrote the following in The Screwtape Letters:
“Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology…”
This was Screwtape informing Wormwood on how to keep his “client” from Christianity. And it’s always stuck with me.
Meanwhile you are (I believe) both a Christian and an economist. As a fellow Christian, who happens to be fascinated by economics, do you have any idea what Lewis was getting at there? Why would economics be a subject more likely to lead one away from Christianity than towards it? I’ve always just assumed that Lewis poorly understood economics. For me, economics is about the seen and the unseen (Bastiat), or the hidden side of everything (Dubner & Levitt).
So I guess my topic request is less about Lewis’ unexpected dismisal of economics and more about how economics and Christianity intersect for you. How informative can the study of economics be for Christianity? Is your understanding of economics informed by your Christianity? Do those two things intersect seemlessly or with intellectual patchwork?
J Scheppers
Nov 21 2014 at 3:50pm
Externality Relativity
From different perspectives many different external economic impacts could be reported. Is there a way to determine which reference frames are most effective in determining possible economic efficiency?
By the way, you were missed the last time you left. Look forward to your future work in any available channel.
ThomasH
Nov 21 2014 at 6:24pm
Mine was not as good as dullgeek’s. But plowing on anyway:
Policy in light of estimates of harm from CO2 accumulation. (If you think the evidence is now weak, in case it became stronger.)
Collective consumption, e.g government funding for space exploration if no material or economic benefits could be argued.
JFA
Nov 21 2014 at 7:44pm
Walmart.
Tom
Nov 21 2014 at 7:57pm
Your academic work. To be honest, quite a few of your posts are similar to older posts, either here or on Forbes or somewhere else (esp. minimum wage). But it would be interesting to hear more about your published work on big box retailers etc.
Paul Ralley
Nov 22 2014 at 3:25am
Art,
Please can you describe a plausible ‘end game’ for price-factor equalisation. I.e. If incomes in each country converge (per skill level) what would the world look like in terms of trade, income distribution etc.
Zachary Bartsch
Nov 25 2014 at 1:01am
I want to hear more about your religion or parenting beliefs and how your participation in either results in real actions that could be perceived as different from anyone else’s.
dullgeek
Nov 25 2014 at 2:13pm
#blush
Not accustomed to seeing compliments from a comment section.
Thanks. Kinda made my day.
BC
Nov 30 2014 at 5:02am
Ivory trade and elephant populations. My intuition suggests that human demand for ivory should actually *increase* elephant populations rather than endanger them. At least, that would be the case if elephant populations, or at least rights to harvest their tusks, were privately owned.
What are the theoretical and empirical aspects of protecting elephant populations by banning/discouraging ivory trade vs. private ownership of elephant herds?
More generally, what are the limits, if any, of preventing Tragedy of the Commons through private ownership or is private ownership (almost) always the solution?
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