Tag: Causes of Prosperity
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Theology and Economics: Technology and Infrastructure (Part 2)
The year is 1789, and you are living in Philadelphia. George Washington has just been elected president of the United States. You have always been one of George's biggest fans. He just dropped by your house and appointed you secretary of state. How long will it be before the rest of the country knows of…
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Theology and Economics: Captial Markets (Part 4)
Industrial Revolution to Present Over the last two centuries, we have seen exponential growth in capital markets and capital formation. The key to this growth has been the creation of mechanisms allowing large enterprises to aggregate enormous sums of capital. Besides the owner's personal equity, nearly all business financing was secured in debt until the…
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Theology and Economics: Captial Markets (Part 2)
The term “capital” first came into use in the fourteenth century to identify funds that have the capacity to return income, rather than simply being of consumable value. Thus, in early usage, “capitalism” referred to the use of wealth (or money) to earn wealth (or money). Put another way, the word “capitalism” implied using wealth…
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Theology and Economics: Capital Markets (Part 1)
Throughout most of human history, there have been two major factors for economic survival: Land and labor. These are referred to in economics as means of production. The overwhelming majority of people throughout history have spent their lives growing crops and raising livestock to provide for their own needs. As recently as 1885, in the…
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Theology and Economics: Scientific Rationalism
The second factor that led to unprecedented prosperity, according to William J. Bernstein, is reason, specifically science. (1) While I agree with Bernstein about the centrality of reason to the expansion of prosperity, I differ with him on his analysis of the origins of scientific rationalism. Bernstein subscribes to a widely held view that places…
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Theology and Economics: Property Rights (Part 2)
Renaissance to Enlightenment The progress of property rights was slow from the time of the Magna Carta to the seventeenth century. Over the centuries, the Magna Carta came to be taken for granted as the basis for English government. The next significant leap came in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries with Sir Edward…
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Theology and Economics: Property Rights (Part 1)
Without property rights and civil rights, little motivates the inventor or businessman to create and produce beyond his immediate need. (1) Throughout most of human history, most people have been unable to produce much beyond what is necessary for survival. When excess wealth has been produced at various times and places, the wealth always becomes…
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Theology and Economics: The Causes of Prosperity
[After a brief respite, I am picking back up with my months-long Theology and Economics series.] I began this series by noting that poverty is the natural human state of affairs. When we ask, “What causes poverty?” the answer is “Being born.” We all come into the world owning nothing. The fact is that most…