Economics

Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute has spent years researching immigration and debating the most common objections. His booklet The Most Common Arguments Against Immigration and Why They’re Wrong tackles fifteen myths with evidence-based responses. Here’s the short version. Myth 1: “Immigrants will take American jobs, lower wages, and especially hurt the poor.” FACT: Immigrants don’t take American jobs, lower wages, or push the poor out of the labor market. Myth 2: “It is easy to immigrate here legally. Why don’t illegal immigrants just get in line?” ...

In God’s economy, the most important people are not the billionaire, the business owner, or even the blue-collar worker. Instead, in God’s economy, the most important people are the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. Which is to say, the poor and the powerless. I’ve previously gone into depth on what the book of Proverbs has to say about poverty and wealth, as well as how Christians should think about wealth. Here are some more biblical passages relevant to the topic. All quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV): ...

Great news! If you only have a minute to read about wealth, here’s my argument in a nutshell: Outline of My Argument Main Claim: American Christians should reduce their standards of living to what is necessary for human flourishing and give their excess resources beyond this standard to the poor and oppressed. God is the firmest advocate for human flourishing. The pursuit of wealth is spiritually dangerous and crippling. Our culture’s inclinations toward upward financial mobility go against the message of the New Testament and the life of Christ. God is revealed in Scripture to have a special concern for the poor and the oppressed. Christians will be held accountable for how they treat the poor and the oppressed. Objections: This line of reasoning is advocating asceticism and is unbiblical. Christians have every right to keep what they have earned and to do what they wish with their excess funds. Because the poor are lazy, Christians should not feel pressured to give, in case their generosity is taken advantage of. Warrant: Christians want to remain true to Scripture and submit to God’s way of life in order to find satisfaction. (For more on Christianity, wealth, and poverty, see my topical study on what the book of Proverbs has to teach us about poverty.) ...

Black Friday proves that the progress of (post)modernity has failed to eradicate the ills of idolatry. Lest we denizens of the “highly-developed” world think that we have left the primitive vestiges of wood, rock, and gold idolatry behind, our shopping patterns (and indeed our shopping identities as consumers) should remind us of our consumerism’s dark side — a lethal one. As I’ve put in “Reconciliation and the Lack Thereof”: “Although physical idols may not be as universally common today as they once were, invisible idols are as prevalent as ever, especially within the context of Western materialism, where money, possessions, influence, and power are the modern-day Baal.” ...