19 May 2015

Latest Video From Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics

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10 Responses to “Latest Video From Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics”

  1. Gene Callahan says:

    Excellent!

  2. E. Harding says:

    Why “faith”? If I had the money (which I don’t), I would have made it an institute of “skepticism, productivity, and economics”. As Goebbels said, “Liberalism means: I believe in Mammon. Socialism means: I believe in work.”. Considering the respect given to the common laborer (in both theory and practice) in the Soviet Union, I consider this essentially correct. Capitalism’s superiority lies not in its respect of work, but its productivity. Soviet and American grain yields were essentially the same per acre, but very different per worker.
    And why are the donuts boiled? I don’t bake, so that sounds kind of weird.

    • Levi Russell says:

      I think that’s just really clean grease.

    • guest says:

      “Liberalism means: I believe in Mammon. Socialism means: I believe in work.”

      False dichotomy.

      Work is a means to an end. Same with mammon (money).

      One is only “better” to the extent that it costs less (in terms of opportunities foregone) for the individual to achieve his subjective goal.

      There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to work. No one is entitled to your productivity. But no one else is obligated to support you.

      So, if you have (legitimate) money, and you sit on your butt, living off the interest, more power to you.

      • E. Harding says:

        “So, if you have (legitimate) money, and you sit on your butt, living off the interest, more power to you.”
        -Heh. research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DFII10
        Dividend income is a more realistic possibility in this day&age.

  3. Levi Russell says:

    Great video! Thanks for sharing it.

  4. Capt. J Parker says:

    I really liked this. But, I will confess to having a mental image of someone out there in internet-land with a copy of “Capital in the 21st Century” bookmarked at page 12 watching this video and thinking “religion, the opiate of the masses.”

    • knoxharrington says:

      “The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.

      Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

      The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

      Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.”

      The quote in context is worth reading even if you are not a Marxist.

      • Capt. J Parker says:

        Thanks knoxharrington,
        Coffee girl of faith and optimism vs. Marx’s opium quote paints quite a contrast of life philosophies. I’ll take a latte, heavy foam and one of those donuts if there still warm please.

    • Tel says:

      I realize this particular video is told from a Christian point of view, but there’s no requirement for any religion at the conceptual level. If you have a job then your time is committed anyhow, might as well do a good job and focus on what you are doing. If you resent the job too much, you should make up your mind and leave; but if the job is at least reasonable you should make the best effort you can.

      Ultimately the price you pay is your lifetime which is a highly finite resource, so the worst option is to hang around at a job you hate, but then jerk off at work, deliver a crappy product, argue all the time, make unreasonable demands and waste everyone else’s life dealing with you. Strangely that seems increasingly common.

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