Tag: productivity
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Allocation of Limited Resources – Part 9 (The Role of Production)
So far in this series, we have examined several possibilities for the distribution of limited resources. While face-to-face communities have the wherewithal to employ several criteria in allocating limited resources, larger aggregations of people do not. I’ve argued that market exchange is by far the most just and efficient means of allocating limited resources across…
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My Response to Brueggemann’s Biblical Economics.
Scot McKnight recently linked a piece by Walter Brueggemann's called A Biblical Approach to the Economic Crisis. I've read and generally liked several things Brueggemann has written, which is part of why I find articles like this so irksome. Here is what I wrote on the Jesus Creed blog. ********** Thanks for the link to…
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Consumption vs. Consumerism (Part 2)
Scot McKnight completed a great series on Adam Hamilton's new book Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics. I have the book but haven't read it yet. I have a lot of respect for Hamilton, and I'm looking forward to reading it. However, in the course of…
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Four Keys to Modern Prosperity: Capital Markets (Part 2)
Renaissance to Enlightenment Most of Europe was a collection of feudal agrarian societies before the Renaissance. Serfs paid rent to a lord for the use of land. That lord paid rent to a higher lord, who paid rent to a King. Lack of clear title for land ownership made exchanges in real estate very difficult.…
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Four Keys to Modern Prosperity: Capital Markets (Part 1)
CAPITAL MARKETS Throughout most of human history, there have been two major factors in 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,…
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Living Simply in Abundance (14)
“Material abundance is (A) rapidly depleting our resources and (B) destroying our environment.” This has become the refrain of a new generation of neo-Malthusian environmentalists in our day. It’s widespread in Mainline (National Council of Churches denominations) and is the dominant viewpoint among influential emerging church notables (Brian McLaren’s “Everything Must Change” is a prime…
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Capital Ideas
One of the fundamental rules for using Scripture is to avoid reading our culture into the text. Scripture was written into a particular context. When we read about economic issues, we must read them within context. What has changed about economics since the Bible times? A Lot! Most people have worked in agriculture over…