Research On Religion » Vernon Smith

Anne Rathbone Bradley on Christianity and Capitalism

tonygill — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 08:00:16 +0000

Does capitalism get a bad rap? Was Jesus and his followers socialists? These questions and more frame our discussion this week as we invite Dr. Anne Rathbone Bradley onto the show to discuss her latest co-edited volume Counting the Cost: Christian Perspectives on Capitalism. Dr. Bradley is the Vice President of Economic Initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics. We begin with an overview of this relatively new institute and what it does, and then turn to the question of what motivated an edited volume on Christianity and capitalism. This leads us to a discussion of how capitalism often gets a bad image, often viewed as synonymous with greed, materialism, and the rich taking from the poor. Anne provides a different working definition of capitalism that rests upon who makes decisions about how the means of production are used (which is a wide swathe of people), and a system of exchange through the mechanisms of profit and loss. We then take a look at the chapter written by Joy Buchanan and Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith about who benefits from capitalism and review the progress humanity has made over the past 200 years as markets have become historically more free. Anne points out that commoners can enjoy such luxuries today that would have only been reserved for a small hereditary class in the past. We move to Jonathan Pennington’s chapter on the topic of human flourishing in both the Old and New Testaments, noting that enjoying life (and the gifts of God) is an important goal here on Earth. This is contrasted to “Kantian altruism,” that tends to wallow in asceticism that often subverts enjoyment of material things. We further talk about how free markets allow us to trade with strangers and the role that trust plays in society, springboarding ourselves into the chapter written the late Michael Novak on how democratic capitalism also helps to raise human dignity. Art Lindsley’s chapter falls next on the docket. He argues that while the New Testament does not specifically call for a capitalist system, neither does it endorse the socialist alternative. The “sharing economy” described in Acts 2-5 is put into context, and Anne introduces the importance of the concept of “ownership of self.” The last portion of our interview is spent discussion one of Dr. Bradley’s specialties — inequality (of both income and wealth). We talk about “good” and “bad” inequality, how inequality is measured, and how God has gifted individuals with different talents that manifest themselves in different returns. Tony notes that this does not undermine the inherent dignity of a person, comparing Bill Gates and his bartenders equally. At this point, Anne relays a personal story about the survival of her daughter immediately after a premature birth and how much she not only benefited from a feeding tube patent introduced by Henry Turkel in the early 1950s, but all the other people that brought the all the technology together that saved a precious life. We also bring up Jesus’s Parable of the Talents that this point. Anne offers some thoughts about what Christians can and should do about inequality, specifically denouncing “cronyism” — the use of government coercion to direct social resources towards one’s personal gain. The interview ends with some of Dr. Bradley’s thoughts on what she has learned over the course of a couple decades studying economics while being a practicing question. She has enjoyed how her spiritual faith has always put her “economic way of thinking” to the test. Recorded: August 18, 2018.

Bob Subrick on Religion and Adam Smith, F.A. Hayek, and Vernon Smith

tonygill — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 09:00:15 +0000

Can you study religion through the framework of economics? Many philosophers think not, but Prof. Robert (Bob) Subrick, and associate professor of economics at James Madison University, says that you can. We discuss a recent paper he wrote that looks at how some very well known economists — Adam Smith, F.A. Hayek, and Vernon Smith — have studied this topic either directly or indirectly.

Our conversation begins with some background on Prof. Subrick himself, as it is somewhat rare to find an economist studying something other than banking, trade, or unemployment levels. While Bob does have an interest in long-term economic development the way we normally think of it (e.g., rising GDP), his interest in economic analysis was picqued by the likes of Gary Becker and Larry Iannaccone who have argued that economics can be applied to a broad swathe of social behavior. We discuss how Bob responds to his skeptics, why economists have long neglected the role of religion, and Tony shares some of his own stories as well.

Prof. Subrick then explains that the nexus where religion can come into play when studying economics, namely the issue of social order. He explains what “social order” means and why religion might play an important role in securing it, as well as being important to understanding long-term, historical growth. We then turn to the most famous economist to come out of the Scottish Enlightenment, Adam Smith. Surprisingly, and despite condensed versions of The Wealth of Nations that redact the material on religion, Adam Smith wrote extensively on this topic. We review his views on this topic, including the origins of religion, the social use of religion, and what happens when governments control the religious marketplace. While Smith is well-known for promoting the idea of laissez-faire economics, his strongest case for the benefits of the free market might actually in the passages that relate to religion. We also examine the potential tension between Smith’s two major works – The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Following our discussion of Adam Smith, we move into the intellectual musings of two lesser known economists, F.A. Hayek and Vernon Smith, both of whom won Nobel Prizes in the Economic Sciences. We start with Hayek and Prof. Subrick explains who this guy is and what the Austrian School of Economics is, a perspective closely associated with Hayek. Interestingly, Bob reveals that even though Hayek had an interest in Christianity early in his life, his parents tried to keep theology away from him by hiding The Bible. We then find out that although Hayek did not write about religion very much, the last chapter in his last book – The Fatal Conceit – he argues how religion allows for a moral system that creates the basis for individual and long-distance trade.

Vernon Smith, no relation to Adam, becomes the intellectual we focus on last. Like Hayek, Smith – an experimental economist – never looks at religion as a central theme, but he nonetheless in his acceptance lecture for the Nobel Prize, he connects five of The Ten Commandments to the reduction of transaction costs in society, which in turn leads to greater economic flourishing. As usual, we end with Prof. Subrick’s personal reflections on what he has learned throughout his career in economics and how it relates to his understanding in religion, with a specific emphasis on what he has found on whether or not the “Protestant ethic” has led to greater economic growth. Recorded: October 29, 2013.