Media and Culture

On Labor Day, Americans honor the often incredible contributions of its working men and women.

"Social responsibility" is out. Richard Teather explains that activists are demanding even more: corporate citizenship. This concept demands that a company's whole actions be carried out with regard to their "social impact" as interpreted by unions, environmentalists, poverty campaigners, and other non-profits. Of course, and mainly, it also means big donations to their organizations. 

The Invisible Heart: An Economics Romance will no doubt be disappointing for those who like their romance novels with Fabio flexing on the cover, damsel in his arms, his hair blowing in the breeze, but it might reach a few romance novel readers and help expose those in the dating pool to the free-market message.

People can feel socially secure in Denmark—at least for now. People don't get rich from welfare but they can live a comfortable life. Practically all people are eligible for one program or another. But it is not sustainable in the long run. At some point, the trough will be empty. Per Henrik Hansen explains.

When today's clergymen expound on issues of political economy we are often given a stark choice. Will we allow companies to selfishly pursue profits or will they recognize a wider social mission? Will workers be paid the barely subsistent market wage or will they be paid a more Christian "living wage"? Even conservatives tell us we must choose between markets and compassion.

Closely linked to the issue of gay marriage is the issue of gay adoption. The subject raises the stakes in the current national controversy, and, as usual, state intervention complicates the picture enormously.

It appears that the issue of global warming is a bit more complicated than those in the major media outlets and the environmentalist organizations would want us to believe. It also appears that our "fragile ecosystem" is a bit more robust than they would have us believe.

Despite the Media Campaign's consistently poor performance, lawmakers are nonetheless set to refund the anti-drug ad program with a new five-year appropriation, which includes a $90 million funding boost!  Nevertheless, it's painfully apparent that the public isn't buying what the government is selling. 

I know no father who cares a whit about Father's Day. We are pleased to be doted on by our families of course, but we have no longing to be "appreciated" for our special role in the world. Fathers consider what they do to be carrying out the normal duties and requirements of life itself, not some enormous sacrifice for others that periodically needs to be recognized.

The journalist's skill as an observer can only take him so far, if he is observing with the wrong theory in mind. As Thomas Friedman's "Theory of Everything" shows, without the distinction between power and market—the very core of the libertarian idea—a theory of everything can easily turn into a theory of nothing.