At Azusa Pacific University on Nov. 28, Values & Capitalism program manager Josh Good addressed a group of 118 students, faculty and friends of the college on the topic: “Real Help for the Poor: Faith, Charity and (Effective) Compassion.”
The lecture examined the scope of our federal entitlement programs, which have vastly increased in the last 50 years, offering a breakdown of current means-tested programs designed to serve low-income Americans. As public spending on these initiatives has vastly increased in recent decades, many indicators suggest a broad departure from the characteristics observed by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835: Americans; “fierce independence,” sense of personal accountability, and “optimistic Puritanism.”
For Christian students interested in serving the poor through personal relationships, congregation-based forms of assistance, and subsidiarity-based assistance (rather than bureaucratic programs alone), tremendous opportunities today exist. This lecture—and a lively round of Q&A—focused on concrete examples and introduced students to our series of books that link a renewal of our free enterprise system with positive policy reforms.
The lecture and a corresponding workshop on “Navigating Public Policy Jobs and Internships,” which hosted 21 students, was co-sponsored by AEI’s Values & Capitalism project and by APU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The lecture examined the scope of our federal entitlement programs, which have vastly increased in the last 50 years, offering a breakdown of current means-tested programs designed to serve low-income Americans. As public spending on these initiatives has vastly increased in recent decades, many indicators suggest a broad departure from the characteristics observed by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835: Americans; “fierce independence,” sense of personal accountability, and “optimistic Puritanism.”
For Christian students interested in serving the poor through personal relationships, congregation-based forms of assistance, and subsidiarity-based assistance (rather than bureaucratic programs alone), tremendous opportunities today exist. This lecture—and a lively round of Q&A—focused on concrete examples and introduced students to our series of books that link a renewal of our free enterprise system with positive policy reforms.
The lecture and a corresponding workshop on “Navigating Public Policy Jobs and Internships,” which hosted 21 students, was co-sponsored by AEI’s Values & Capitalism project and by APU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
