Year in Review

The year now passing began with sickness for yours truly — which more-or-less set the tone for the ensuing twelve months. Good grief!

Research and writing therefore proceeded haltingly and with many interruptions but, with the onset of winter, there was some resolution in selecting ideas to explore in the weeks ahead:

1. Free markets, capital formation, entrepreneurship, and legal rules, as essential components of economic growth;
2. American politics and fidelity to the U.S. Constitution, culminating with the presidential election in November;
3. British conservatism, in theory and practice, especially from the historical perspective of Benjamin Disraeli and Margaret Thatcher; and
4. Mediæval culture, particularly in relation to the Enlightenment, and the rise of capitalist economics and the pursuit of liberty. (My conceit is that a conservative appeal to the Middle Ages, rightly applied, can provide all the better aspects of the eighteenth century, without those ‘atomising’ elements eschewed by Tories.)

So, before sending 2015 on its way and welcoming with hopeful anticipation the new year, here is a round-up of essays posted throughout the year:

• New year, old politics, for the Republican-led Congress — on the Washington establishment’s penchant for spending, regardless of political party in power. This essay was published courtesy of the Centre for Policy Studies;
• The genius of America’s founding culture sustains her still — on the lessons of America’s republican founding (by way of an excellent analysis by Myron Magnet), in which the path to prosperity was marked by individual effort and responsibility, with government limited to enforcing the rule of law and safeguarding the polity from threat: two modest objectives most states fail to realise, as illustrated by Public Choice Theory. This essay also published courtesy of CPS;
• Only the market can give life to the Living Wage — on the reason why government-imposed minimum wage regulations only shrink the labour force, and why only the market can provide real wage increases;
• What Role Does Charity Have in the Workplace? — on charity as best conceived as a voluntary act with negative consequences when applied to the marketplace, whether by government fiat or misplaced good intentions. This essay published courtesy of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute; and
• Unleash prosperity by giving full rein to capital accumulation — to mark the launch of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, an essay on the true source of economic growth, capital accumulation, which increases production and employment, and benefits consumers with lowers costs and more purchasing power.

If any of these essays catch your fancy, please share them with your friends and colleagues. DMI needs encouragement to flourish and seek out new research and publishing opportunities!

As a special treat, the Institute was mentioned in a New York Sun column on America’s ‘Constitution Day’. Many thanks to the editor, Seth Lipsky.

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It only remains to remind you to follow DMI on Twitter and on Facebook, and to wish all my readers good health and good fortune in 2016!

On the Web: Thoughts on charity in the workplace

Please see my first post for the Intercollegiate Review website, ‘What Role Does Charity Have in the Workplace?’

Charity may begin at home but it ends at the workplace, suggests a report from the New York Times. The world cheered when Dan Price, cofounder of Gravity Payments, decided to initiate a minimum salary of $70,000 per year across the board for his workforce, this after hearing a friend complain about making ends meet on $40,000 a year and realizing that many of his 120 employees earned less.

Those who were already receiving this minimum salary, however, didn’t like it. They had had to work long hours to attain that pay level. Experience and the hard work that gave rise to it merited their compensation, but now new hires and others with lower seniority were reaping the benefits without the effort. Minimum-wage mandates have always raised the hackles of classical economists, but rarely have they drawn the publicly vented ire of employees themselves. Until now.

Read more…