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Articles by Kishore Jayabalan
Inhumane Economics | Kishore Jayabalan
Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer is in a bind. Inaugurated just sixteen months ago, after campaigning to “fix the damn roads,” she must now deal with an unprecedented public health crisis, a cratering economy, a state legislature controlled by Republicans, and small but noisy protests in Lansing. On top of all this, she may also be Joe Biden’s running mate in the November elections. Michiganders cannot reasonably expect the governor to handle so many problems without making mistakes.
Matteo Salvini and the Bishops | Kishore Jayabalan
If mixing religion and politics is a tricky affair, keeping them separate is nearly impossible. Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and leader of La Lega party, made headlines on May 26 by kissing the rosary, invoking the patron saints of Europe, and entrusting the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the run-up to the European Parliament elections.
The Economics and Ethics of “Just Wages”
From a strictly economic point of view, wages are nothing more than the price of labor, which are determined by the free agreement of buyer and seller. From an ethical perspective, however, wages are often the sole means of income for individuals and families, and workers have a right to wages that are sufficient to provide the necessities of housing, food, and clothing. At first glance, these perspectives seem diametrically opposed to each other.
Thomas Aquinas on the Just Price
This essay is part of our collection on common good economics. Read related pieces here. The question of the just price has long vexed economists and ethicists alike. It has become more relevant as Catholics and other Christians evaluate the soundness of liberal democratic capitalism and consider potential alternatives to contemporary political, social, and economic arrangements.
Letter from Rome: Defending the Legacy of John Paul II
The following commentary by Kishore Jayabalan was published November 2, 2018, by the Acton Institute as the featured article in its Religion & Liberty Transatlantic edition. I generally dislike nostalgia for its sentimentality and diversion from dealing with problems at hand. It is especially a problem for conservatives, often portrayed as reactionary and anti-progress. There are times, however, when remembrance of the past is not only useful but necessary for true human progress to occur.
Socialism still kills
Whatever the reason, the failure to discredit communism and socialism has come back to haunt us. The popularity of Bernie Sanders, the only openly socialist politician in the US Congress, among young Americans along with their dislike of capitalism would have been unimaginable just ten years ago. Millennial religious conservatives at places like First Things are okay with calling themselves Christian socialists.
Letter from Rome: Who speaks for the “people”?
We are in the midst of a major political upheaval in the West. The recent World Meeting of Popular Movements in Modesto, California is just one of many left-wing variants of the populism that has also swept Donald Trump into power. Both claim to speak for the “people” when in fact they have diametrically-opposed understandings of who the “people” are and who represents them.
Crossing the Waters of Freedom
Although its roots are often attributed to Latin America, liberation theology was born in German schools of theology in the early twentieth century. From this birthplace in the ivory towers of the Old World, priests and theologians brought it to the jungles and plains of the New. Troubled by the genuine needs of the natives, these populist theologians challenged the pre-capitalist system that perpetuated the poverty of Latin lands.
The Francis-Trump Populist Nexus
Populism and free markets have a strained relationship. On the one hand, free markets have raised the living standards of ordinary people beyond belief and given them opportunities their ancestors couldn’t possibly imagine. So one would think any leader who wants the people on his side would promote market economics.
The Moral Dimension of Work
“The moral foundation of political economy,” to use Lord Acton’s phrase, rests on the connection of liberty with right, of right with duty, of duty with leisure and delight, and of all with transcendence. Our most unsettling economic problems are actually not economic but moral—moral ones that cannot be simply passed on from generation to generation. They need to be chosen and internalized by each person in each generation at the risk of deflecting material goods from their proper purposes.
The Real ‘Throwaway’ Culture
Pope Francis is famous for his strident denunciations of a “throwaway culture” that ruthlessly discards human beings not considered useful in an economy that “kills.” His criticism is true in so far as our pragmatic age exalts what David Brookscalls “résumé virtues” over “eulogy virtues.” Technocracy and utilitarianism have made us cold and calculating, less respectful towards nature and neighbor.
Unholy Alliance: Who is Advising Pope Francis on Global Warming?
Smiling, lovable, Pope Francis says and does the darndest things. Wildly popular, this Argentine pontiff provides the common touch that for millions, and not just Catholics, offers a welcome and very public picture of how the world’s most influential religious leader can live, pray and lead as a humble pastor.
The Moral Limits of Psychology
Defenders of the free market insist that virtue is essential to a just and thriving economy. If morality is relevant to economics, it is equally so to allied fields of social science, all of which have as their object of investigation the human person. Indifference to the moral dimension distorts the study of human action in economics; so too does it deform the discipline that reaches behind that action to the human mind: psychology.
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