By Matthew Purucker · News Editor
Former Grove City College economics professor Anne Bradley presented “A Christian Case for Economic Freedom” to attendees on March 10 in Rathburn Hall.
Bradley promoted that a Christian, pro-free-market view of economics and economic policy leads to human flourishing. The George Mason University professor reasoned that economic freedom spurs innovation, increasing human quality of life.
“The market economy allows us to extend our talents to people through the commercial sphere and serve them,” Bradley said.
As part of her talk, Bradley emphasized the importance of Adam Smith’s free market and wealth-building work, “Wealth of Nations,” noting to the audience that its 250th anniversary was the day before (March 9).
“Greed, of course, is wrong from a Smithian perspective, and of course, more importantly, from a scriptural perspective, greed is always wrong,” Bradley said. “But what Adam Smith is not saying is that this (self-interest) can never include sacrifice.”
Bradley then discussed how economic freedom led to the invention of synthetic insulin and increased human flourishing.
“(Because of) 100 years of living in a country with economic freedom that unleashes human capital, innovation, entrepreneurship that saved my kid’s life, he has a chance, and so does everybody else who has type one diabetes,” Bradley said.
Throughout the talk, Bradley connected her points to a Christian view of economics, emphasizing the need for action for this view to be valid and reflect God.
“As Christians, we understand very well that our job is to help improve the world by loving our neighbor, by raising families, by fulfilling our role in the church,” Bradley said. “And economics is a pathway to help us do that. It’s not the only way, but it’s a tool that I think God has given us to help us do that.”
As Bradley was closing her speech, she noted what she believes are the five factors of economic freedom that contribute to human prosperity.
“Limited government, low levels of regulation, protection of private property, freedom to trade and sound currency. Those are the five things that economists measure,” Bradley said. “When countries embrace those five things, this is what they get: exponential economic growth.”
After the lecture portion of the event ended, attendees also asked Bradley questions about economic issues and policy beyond her lecture. Those questions included concerns about the rising national debt and liabilities to Social Security and Medicare.
“I think one of the problems is (deficit spending) might be fine for a while, and by the time it’s not fine, the people that have done the damage are long gone, and that’s where we are right now,” Bradley said. “And so, I think that’s a real problem right now, the young college students in this room, their grandchildren, have debt that they have not consented to. And I think that’s a moral, a fiscal and a spiritual problem, and they will have to deal with it.”
Questions also mentioned the gold standard and tariffs, allowing Bradley to reinforce key parts of her lecture.
“The higher the economic freedom score, the less abject poverty is in that country,” Bradley said. “In the countries that score the highest, there’s literally no abject poverty, meaning living under $2 a day, and there’s rich, robust social welfare programs to help people who fall into poverty. … So economic freedom helps us unleash our gifts on society, to help other people, but it also helps us to be generous, which we’re called to do, as Christians.”
