{"id":1373,"date":"2026-03-20T08:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2026\/03\/20\/2026-03-20-bradley-preaches-economic-prosperity\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:08:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:08:58","slug":"2026-03-20-bradley-preaches-economic-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2026\/03\/20\/2026-03-20-bradley-preaches-economic-prosperity\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradley preaches economic\u00a0prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Matthew Purucker<\/a> · News Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Grove City College economics professor Anne Bradley presented \u201cA Christian Case for Economic Freedom\u201d to attendees on March 10 in Rathburn Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe market economy allows us to extend our talents to people through the commercial sphere and serve them,\u201d Bradley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of her talk, Bradley emphasized the importance of Adam Smith\u2019s free market and wealth-building work, \u201cWealth of Nations,\u201d noting to the audience that its 250th anniversary was the day before (March 9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGreed, of course, is wrong from a Smithian perspective, and of course, more importantly, from a scriptural perspective, greed is always wrong,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cBut what Adam Smith is not saying is that this (self-interest) can never include sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradley then discussed how economic freedom led to the invention of synthetic insulin and increased human flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c(Because of) 100 years of living in a country with economic freedom that unleashes human capital, innovation, entrepreneurship that saved my kid\u2019s life, he has a chance, and so does everybody else who has type one diabetes,\u201d Bradley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cAnd economics is a pathway to help us do that. It\u2019s not the only way, but it\u2019s a tool that I think God has given us to help us do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Bradley was closing her speech, she noted what she believes are the five factors of economic freedom that contribute to human prosperity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLimited government, low levels of regulation, protection of private property, freedom to trade and sound currency. Those are the five things that economists measure,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cWhen countries embrace those five things, this is what they get: exponential economic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think one of the problems is (deficit spending) might be fine for a while, and by the time it\u2019s not fine, the people that have done the damage are long gone, and that\u2019s where we are right now,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cAnd so, I think that\u2019s 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\u2019s a moral, a fiscal and a spiritual problem, and they will have to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions also mentioned the gold standard and tariffs, allowing Bradley to reinforce key parts of her lecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe higher the economic freedom score, the less abject poverty is in that country,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cIn the countries that score the highest, there\u2019s literally no abject poverty, meaning living under $2 a day, and there\u2019s rich, robust social welfare programs to help people who fall into poverty. \u2026 So economic freedom helps us unleash our gifts on society, to help other people, but it also helps us to be generous, which we\u2019re called to do, as Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Grove City College economics professor Anne Bradley presented \u201cA Christian Case for Economic Freedom\u201d to attendees on March 10 in Rathburn Hall. Bradley promoted that a Christian, pro-free-market view of economics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[14,51,91],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus","tag-front-page","tag-issue-2026-03-20","tag-matthew-purucker"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Former Grove City College economics professor Anne Bradley presented \u201cA Christian Case for Economic Freedom\u201d to attendees on March 10 in Rathburn Hall. Bradley promoted that a Christian, pro-free-market view of economics","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1705,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions\/1705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}