Barnett on Sirico and Rediscovering Political Economy

[Michie]

Rediscovering Political Economy is the title of a book recently published by Lexington Books, edited by Joseph Postell and Bradley C.S. Watson, and including an essay by Fr. Robert Sirico. The Spring 2012 issue the Journal of Markets & Morality will feature a review of the book by Tim Barnett, an associate professor of political science at Jacksonville State University.

Since that’s too long to wait for Prof. Barnett’s astute observations, we post here an edited and abridged version of the full review.

It is not easy to find a book on political economy that starts as well as this one does, with real insights on themes that matter!

The book rises from ten papers presented by notable economic thinkers at a conference co-sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Political and Economic Thought (at St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA). Allegedly, each essay aims to contribute something to the reuniting of economics with political and moral principles, especially in the context of the U.S. Constitution. This is an admirable goal.

Still, as the book’s organizers point out, economics as a discipline has little capacity to adjudicate between competing presuppositions that underlie the political economy discourse.

There is little in the text to suggest that such capacity has suddenly grown. Nonetheless, it is good that the conference participants have provided interested parties an opportunity to evaluate the observations, rationales and assumptions that inform their endeavor to reseed the logic of moral principles into the field of political economy.

Continued- http://blog.acton.org/archives/27483-barnett-on-sirico-and-rediscovering-political-economy.html
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[Fantine]

We certainly could have a smaller government if private companies and public services offered a benefits package to their employees which made programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. unnecessary.

My parents, for example, probably could have done fine without Social Security. They worked for employers with defined benefit pension plans, and worked for the same employer all their lives. They had generous pensions and paid health insurance (eventually a Medicare supplement was provided.) Dental, even eyeglasses.

When my father broke a bone late in life and had two months of hospitalization and rehabilitation, my family didn't pay a penny in deductibles or expenses.

But we don't have those kind of companies, the kind of companies that, God bless them, labor unions fought for.

Not only do many not provide pensions and health insurance (especially the smallest businesses) but most offer no job security whatever.

I would dream of a smaller government if there were good companies out there.