Every Friday, we bring you the best ideas from our blog and around the web. This week’s collection includes a change in strategy for TOMS, advice for how to deal with the next recession and more.
1. But, I Want to Help People!: Recipient of a Values & Capitalism’s mini-grants, Gillian Foster (co-founder of “The Greatest Good: Nil Sine Numine”) describes why business and ordinary work should be thought of as sacred undertakings.
One of our hopes with this project is to demystify what it means to lead a socially and spiritually conscious life. We firmly believe that work is part of God’s plan for humankind—after all, humanity bears the imago dei, and God labored in the Genesis creation account.
2. Conservatism and Freedom: Human freedom, on its own, is not a substantive principle, argues Carson Holloway of Public Discourse.
Such a conservatism would be not just about human freedom, but about freedom linked to, and therefore dignified by, moral reason embodied in the traditions and culture of a great civilization.
3. The Surprising Answer for How to Answer the Next Recession: Prof. Lawrence H. White and Learn Liberty believe that the next time we face an economic recession, it would be better for government to do nothing if we want to ensure a quick recovery.
4. TOMS Shoes Joins Bono on the Role of Enterprise: Elise Amyx, of the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, explains why she is finally considering buying her first pair of TOMS.
TOMS is moving from a simplistic, temporary, short-term mentality to a holistic, sustainable, long-term development approach. This paradigm shift is important because it gets at the heart of the matter: human dignity. Employment addresses the needs of a person beyond his or her feet, not only because it provides a steady flow of income, but because work is dignifying.
5. The City’s Welfare: Our Vocation in Exile: Though our ultimate hope is found in heaven, Tyler Castle argues that we must seek to transform the world through our work in the present.
This side of heaven, there will always be sin in our world. America is not the Promised Land, and while ours may not yet match the depravity of Babylon, we must realize that we are in exile. This should not stop us from seeking earthly redemption, but it should temper our expectations for today, despite bright hope for tomorrow.
