Articles by Dr. William Luckey
Some Suggestions for an Austrian Theory of Organizational Behavior
Oct 16, 2009 / 00:00 amIntroduction
John Paul II: On the Cutting Edge of Catholic Social Teaching on Economics
Oct 9, 2009 / 00:00 amSome people treat Catholic Social Teachings in the same way that the Church treats revealed dogma—as mostly unchanging, but that there can be some expansion to our understanding of those revealed dogmas, but no change in Social Teaching. But Catholic Social Teaching has three aspects:
Back to Nature
Sep 25, 2009 / 00:00 amThere are a number of Catholics, thankfully not too many, who believe that it would be more pleasing to God if we all gave up our highly technical lives, or money, vacations, etc., and lived on a subsistence level. These same folks are always championing "Western Civilization." They never ask what made Western civilization possible. The existence of great writers and thinkers does not make a civilization. A civilization is made up of all those people who have learned and accepted the values of the great thinkers of that civilization, and in the West, the teaching and contribution of the Catholic Church, not all of which is doctrinal, but intellectual as well. Notice that it is not just the teachings of the Church that made up Western civilization, but the accumulated wisdom of that whole civilization. Even the Church in its theological debates uses philosophical language and concepts developed by the great, and frequently pagan, thinkers.
Martyrdom...What?
Sep 11, 2009 / 00:00 amTo many Catholics a martyr is one who dies for the Faith, usually by open persecution. We think of the Apostles, St. Stephen, St. Peter of Verona, and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, among so many others. Few, however, know the origin and nature of the term "martyr," and hence, the multifaceted aspects of martyrdom.
Population-Control Weirdos
Sep 4, 2009 / 00:00 amThe population-control weirdos believe that people are a blight on the planet. (I am not being harsh calling them weirdos—wait until you see my argument). They think that all people do is use up resources, and eventually the planet will be void. In fact, as the late, great economist Julian Simon pointed out, national income accounting counts the birth of a calf as an increase in capital, but the birth of a baby as a decrease in capital. Those economists who worship mathematical methods divide amount of capital by population. So, if you have $1,000,000 in capital and you have 1,000,000 people, you have one dollar of capital for every person. But if you have $1,000,000 of capital and then give birth to 10 babies, you get $1,000,000/1,000,010, or .9999 cents of capital per person, clearly a decline. One thing that these folks never seemed to learn in Economics 101 is that everybody, except the most handicapped or the most lazy people, produce more than they consume. This is true even in less-developed countries.
There’s a Bridge…
Aug 28, 2009 / 00:00 am"Cash For Clunkers." This, as everybody knows, was the administration’s plan to get environmentally unsound cars off the road. The idea was that if somebody had a car that had been around too long, the piston rings were probably so worn down that you could drive a car through them, burning oil was spewing through the atmosphere, they were gas hogs, and were bought before the current environmental regulations on autos were imposed. If you turned your clunker in, you got $4500 in cash from the government which could be used to purchased a NEW car, which would be less harmful to the environment. The car you traded in would be destroyed so that it could not be resold and put back on the road.
What a Character!
Aug 21, 2009 / 00:00 amA thorough reading of the Old Testament will show that the worst, and the most persistent, sin that the Chosen People committed was that of idolatry. They did it time and time again. This, and God’s punishments that followed, were actually predicted in Deuteronomy 29, 30, and 32. The people of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, were captured by the Assyrians, never to return, and the Assyrians populated their land with other pagan peoples. The Southern Kingdom, Judah and Benjamin, were captured by the Babylonians and taken to Babylon for about 45 years. When the Persians defeated the Babylonians, the Judeans and Benjaminites were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city wall and the Temple, which the Babylonians had destroyed.
My Money Lies over the Ocean…
Aug 14, 2009 / 00:00 amIn our last entry we discussed the necessity of savings for economic growth. It is savings which buys capital goods so that we can have consumer goods in the future. It was also pointed out that there needed to be enough savings to repair and replace current capital equipment just to consume at current levels, and that in order to grow economically, we must save more than that.
Savings, Schmavings!
Aug 1, 2009 / 00:00 amDear Dr. Luckey, I realize that savings is good for the individual—for contingencies, vacations, retirement—but why is it good for the nation as a whole?
Stimulate This!
Jul 24, 2009 / 00:00 amIt is very seldom that economists have a laboratory in order to test theories. For an Austrian, this is not a problem because the axioms of economics are apodictic, meaning they are self-evident. But even so, to the average non-economist, some verification is nice as an illustration. Normally, a specialist in economics is necessary to delve beyond the host of activities in the economy and the government to isolate the economic factors that lead, say, to a recession. Praise God! Besides the Great Depression, which I find easy to diagnose, we have such a laboratory—JAPAN.
Size Matters
Jul 17, 2009 / 00:00 amYesterday I had a conversation with a gentleman who argued that large corporations and “Wall Street,” whatever he meant by that phrase, worked to the detriment of small business. He complained that large corporations and “Wall Street” put small businesses out of existence.
What Does Economic Theory Have to Do with the Development of the Human Person?
Jul 10, 2009 / 00:00 amMany Catholics, including Popes, have contrasted economic development with personal development. They are at pains to point out that mere economic development does not necessarily lead to the development of persons or culture per se. They seem to harp on this as if everyone would be ignorant of this obvious truth, or as if the free market economic system automatically deflects one from development of their personhood. I think that some Catholics make their careers stating and restating this.
The Wise and Powerful Obama Knows the Cost of Government-Run Medical Care!
Jul 3, 2009 / 00:00 amThe Congressional Budget Office has given us an estimate of how much it will cost to insure one-third of all the uninsured medical patients in the United States by something like 2012, and it will cost a certain bazillions of dollars, which Obama is now saying will not expand the deficit, while also having promised in his campaign that he will not raise taxes of anyone who makes below $250,000. There is nothing in the media but talk about how he can possibly do this without taxing, and the fact that this ginormous amount of money will cover only one-third of those allegedly needing coverage.
Government "Health Care"
Jun 26, 2009 / 00:00 amAlmost all the talk in the news today is about health care reform in the United States. I think that we should examine the true status of this “health care” situation.
A Letter Expressing Much Of What Is Wrong With Our Country
Jun 19, 2009 / 00:00 amGlenn Beck: The Letter
Requirements for a Supreme Court Justice
May 29, 2009 / 00:00 amThere has been a lot of discussion about President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States. There has been much persnickety analysis of a few remarks she made at a conference, and one or two decisions she made, including the fact that her decisions as a Court of Appeals judge have been overturned more often than not by the Supreme Court itself. The big question is whether she will stick to the law or be an activist judge, which means that she will want to make law and public policy from the bench.
Notre Dame, Obama and Economics
May 22, 2009 / 00:00 amI am sure that readers of this blog are familiar with the recent episode relating to the supposed Catholic university of Notre Dame inviting President Obama, the most pro-abortion president in history, to be the commencement speaker and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Keynes: Alive and Well in Conservative Circles
May 15, 2009 / 00:00 amI have never listened to the Glenn Beck radio show, but I have enjoyed watching his television show, first on CNN Headline News, and, more recently, on Fox News Channel. I also agree with almost everything he says on that show, and I am impressed with his guests, especially, but not exclusively, the economists. However, today he blew it!
Even by Government Standards, This Is ‘Real Money’
May 8, 2009 / 00:00 amThis week, President Obama submitted his budget to Congress. The budget called for 3.6 trillion dollars in government spending; that’s $3,600,000,000,000. He was proud of his work because, he said, he cut $17 billion dollars in government programs, which he said is “real money.” Now, to you and me, $17 billion is a lot of money; but to the Federal budget, it is a real drop in the bucket. Obama’s cuts in programs are ½ of 1% of this budget, or, .005 of the budget. Put another way, the total spending in the Obama budget is $11,613 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The cuts in programs comes to $54.84 for every man, woman and child in the United States. To put this is real terms that everyone can understand, even a Congressman, the spending in government programs is less than one year’s tuition, room and board at Christendom College. The alleged savings of $54.84 will not buy even ONE standard micro-macroeconomics textbook, the price of which usually runs over $100.
‘What Do You Want on Your Tombstone?’
May 1, 2009 / 00:00 amThis line from an old pizza commercial brings up an exercise in one of my management courses while studying for my MBA. What you had to do is think for a while about what you would like your epitaph to say about you. I never thought about it this way. Another way to put this exercise is to ask, "What kind of a person are you? How do you want people to remember you?"