Jesus and the System

Jesus is the soul of the system.

But the system is convinced it has no soul.

Nor does it want one.  

And this is why he was killed.  

But the soul is immortal.

And it will ever rise.

Incorruptible.  Triumphant.

Religious Liberty and the Question of What We Believe

One of the interesting parts of the debate over the Health and Human services mandate has been the focus on the question of how serious Catholics are about their beliefs and therefore whether their institutions are entitled to act upon those beliefs.  At various points, I heard commenters in favor of the mandate proclaim that 97% of Catholic women use contraception.  I have doubts about the validity of that study.  Certainly, it ignores the question of abortion and abortifacient products.  

But with regard to the Bible and church doctrine, I can tell you this:  100% of Protestants sin.  I suspect the same figure holds for Catholics.  Guess what?  We’re still against sin.  It doesn’t mean we don’t believe in God.  It doesn’t mean we have abandoned our faith.  It doesn’t mean we don’t care when the government oversteps its bounds and tries to push the churches out of community life.  We don’t need the government to tell us what church doctrine is and what we believe or don’t believe.  Religious liberty and the separation of church and state means that it is up to us and the churches with which we voluntarily associate to determine those matters.  

Standing Up to Rousseau: Remarks at the Fortnight for Freedom

I had the opportunity to speak at the Fortnight for Freedom event held by the Church of the Incarnation in Collierville, Tennessee.  The venue and the crowd were among the best I’ve ever encountered.  Below, you can read excerpted remarks:

Wright Brand Bacon: Baker’s Verdict

Wright Brand bacon is expensive and highly touted. I cooked some tonight. Here’s the problem. Imagine bacon. Then imagine a WHOLE LOTTA extra flavor added to bacon.

The problem is that bacon tastes really good. When you add several layers of flavor on top of that, it’s like drowning in a pit of rainbow sherbert shot through with skittles and energy drinks. Too much.

Just give me humble bacon, I say.  Some things are not easily improved.

NRO Symposium: Scott Walker (My Take)

Though exit polls indicated a dead heat, the networks picked Governor Scott Walker to win by 10 pm eastern time.  The result is a body blow to government unions at a time when they have arguably become much more consequential than the remnants of the once massive private sector union bloc.  While the election represents a major setback for public unions (whose perks and benefits represent low hanging fruit in a time of budget crises), it demonstrates a healthy civic impulse and clear-sightedness on the part of voters.

The decision to retain Governor Walker exhibits an ability on the part of voters to discern the difference between private unions (which can be a perfectly legitimate part of a free market negotiating process) and public unions (which are a different sort of creature).  Public unions create a class of voters (government union members) who are able to promise money and support to the people making decisions about their pay packages and work conditions.  It is anything but an arm’s length transaction made in the interest of all citizens.  The process highlights the way narrow interests can exploit apathy on the part of the public to gain concentrated benefits.  The situation is made worse by the fact that many of the benefits (such as pension promises) don’t come due until well in the future when feckless decision makers have long since left office and need not face the music.  The public union is a Tocquevillian nightmare.

There is little incentive (other than fiscal responsibility, an exceedingly rare virtue) for executives like Scott Walker to rein them in.  But he did it anyway.  Walker bet his term on drawing attention to the way public unions act against the public interest.  He paid a price in having to fight a determined recall.  But tonight, he has been vindicated.  The people of Wisconsin have decided to reject the kind of government that rewards organized public employees with perks and promises well beyond those available to the vast majority of Americans working in the private sector.  In so doing, they have taken an important step in equalizing the playing field between those holding government jobs and those working in the private economy that supports the government jobs.

What Really Makes Prices Go Up?

During the last several years, we have experienced a general rise in the price of many goods (especially food) thanks to an increase in the price of oil.  Oil, of course, affects the price of many other items because oil ratchets up the cost of transportation, which is built into so many things that have to come to market.

But the price of oil is a tiny, little, marginal thing compared with the influence of another force.

One might have noticed that in real terms, most consumer goods are much cheaper (adjusted for inflation) than they were many years ago.  This trend is most notable when we consider how innovation has reduced the cost of manufacture and has given us gigantic value for the dollar spent on electronics, for example.

But prices have gone up radically in a couple of areas.  Health care has become far more expensive during the past three decades.  The same is true of higher education.  The rise in cost in both areas has been shocking.

How do we explain the increase in prices in these sectors as real prices have gone down in many others?  The answer is simple:  government subsidies.  The government injects gigantic dollars into health care through Medicare, Medicaid, and a variety of state and local programs.  Governments also provide tremendous subsidies to higher education via various forms of financial aid.  Those subsidies drive large numbers of additional bidders for goods and services into those markets where they push prices upward.  Only now are the market participants beginning to feel the bite.  The reason is that prices have gone up enough to counteract the effect of subsidies.

Let’s note that there are no really significant subsidies in an area like computers, televisions, cars, or even clothing.  Now, you can get more value than you could two decades ago for the same money.  The difference is substantial.

But in health care and higher education, you are paying more and more for the goods being sought.  We should note that there is an important exception.  What medical procedures have been getting cheaper?  Plastic surgeries and laser eye surgeries.  Both of them are largely unsubsidized.  No government aid or insurance, really.

All of this suggests that we have made a mistake by bringing so many government dollars into higher education and health care.  We don’t know what the market may have given us in the meantime.  But it may well have been more innovation and better service at a superior price.