8

NATURAL LIMITS
TO GRATUITOUS GOODS

Gratuitous goods are voluntarily provided and received. They are part and parcel of a social order based on private-property rights. But how solid is this connection? Are gratuitous goods truly enshrined in the very DNA of a free society or is this association fragile? Are there forces at work that tend to diminish or destroy gratuitous goods under capitalism? What are the conditions under which gratuitous goods would decline, and possibly disappear altogether?

PART THREE

GRATUITOUS GOODS AND THE STATE

9

INTERVENTIONISM

Economic goods are scarce. In order to increase the quantity or quality of economic goods that are provided and received gratuitously, someone has to bear the production costs. This is what economists mean when they insist that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

10

THE STATE AS A PROVIDER
OF GRATUITOUS GOODS

Government interventions provide gratuitous goods to the agents of the state and also to other people. Such gratuitous transfers are typically intended. They are not just an accidental by-product of taxation and regulation, but the very point of taxing and regulating the citizenry.

11

HAUNTED DONATIONS

12

INTERVENTIONISM
AND SIDE-EFFECT GOODS

Interventionism does not only affect the ability and willingness of ordinary citizens to make donations. It also has a significant impact on side-effect goods such as the ones discussed in chapter 6. What happens to cultural commons such as language, law, and money in an interventionist economy? What happens to the unintended benefits of leisure, of human error, of market exchange, and of savings? How do they fare under a regime of legal monopolies, in a welfare state, and under inflationary monetary policies?

CONCLUSION

Starting from Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in veritate, we set out on a long intellectual journey that led us to outline an economic theory of gratuitous goods. Our motivation was to integrate this theory into the larger edifice of political economy.

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2019. The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty. New York: Penguin Press.

Acton, H. B. 1993. The Morals of Markets and Related Essays. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.

Akerlof, George A. 1982. “Labor Contracts as Partial Gift Exchanges.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 97 (4): 543–69.

Al-Ubaydli, Omar, and Terence Kealey. 2000. “Endogenous growth theory: a critique.” Economic Affairs 20 (3): 10–13.

INDEX

Compiled by Roger E. Bissell

abundance. See under non-economic goods

Acemoglu, Daron, 49

Acton, H. B. (Harry), 131

acts of production. See under claims and obligations

Akerlof, George A., 91n23

Alexander the Great, 281n14

altruism, altruistic, 17, 20, 81, 103, 103n5, 104, 106–8. See also under

donations, motivations of benevolent altruism, 104–9, 118

malevolent altruism, 104–6, 108n7

Al-Ubaydli, Omar, 192n10