Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History’s Greatest Communicator (Crossway).
The United States spends a lot of money each year on public schooling. As a percentage of GDP, government expenditures on public education (five percent) exceed the amount we spend on defense (four percent) or welfare (two percent). But how do we know if we are getting our “money’s worth” on public school? Too often, the primary criterion of effectiveness is standardized testing. A school is rated almost exclusively on on how well its students perform on standard testing (usually limited to reading and math) as compared to other students in the same city, district, or state. When the issue
Are you better off than someone who has a million dollars in the bank? Probably not—at least not compared to a millionaire today. But chances are you consider yourself better off than someone who was a millionaire in an previous era—and you may even be better off than someone who had a million dollars in the bank in the 1970s or 1980s. Don’t believe me? Then ask yourself this question: How much is [technological advance X] worth to me? That’s not an easy question to answer since there’s no exact way to put a dollar figure on the subjective value of various technological improvements.
Each week my neighbors and I engage in a curious ethical ritual. On Wednesday morning before we leave for work we set outside our doors an artifact that expresses our obligation to the welfare of future generations. We call these objects recycling bins. Recycling is one example of an action that we take in the present to benefit a group in the future. The earth has enough space and resources that all current generations could be extremely wasteful without having a noticeably detrimental effect on the global population. Future generations, however, would likely suffer if we were wantonly careless
This weekend Saturday Night Live had a sketch that set the Internet abuzz and had Slate asking whether the skit was the “most astute analysis of american politics in 2016.” The setup was “Black Jeopardy!”, a recurring bit on SNL that normally pits two lower-class black contestants against a wealthier and/or well-educated white contestant who is clueless about African-American perspectives on race and culture. This time, though, the white guy is a working-class (presumed) Trump supporter named Doug (played by Tom Hanks)—who isn’t as out of touch as we might
“We’re going to need to see your birth certificate,” the manager said, making a notation on my employment application, “But you’re hired. Show up a 10 a.m. on Thursday for training.” I was too young and dumb to realize he was calling my bluff. I had to be 16 to take the job and I could barely pass for 14 (which I wouldn’t be for a another month). Yet instead of pointing out that I was lying about my age (which, obviously, I was), he figured he’d mark me down in the hired column and assume I’d be one of the dozen new people to not show up for the first day of work. But I did show
In last night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump said that NAFTA was the worst trade deal the U.S. has ever signed, and that it continues to kill American jobs. Here is what you should know about the perennially controversial trade agreement. What is NAFTA? NAFTA is the initialism for the North American Free Trade Agreement, an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that reduced or eliminated trade barriers in North America. (Since the U.S. and Canada already had a free trade agreement (signed in 1988), NAFTA merely brought Mexico into the trade bloc.) Negotiations for the
Approximately 1 in 50 Americans are at risk of anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction caused by such conditions as food allergies or exposure to the venom of bee stings. Fortunately, people at risk of anaphylaxis can get a prescription for an epinephrine autoinjector that goes by the brand name EpiPen. By self-injecting epinephrine at the onset of anaphylaxis they can be stabilized long enough to seek medical treatment. In 2007, the cost was approximately $100 (the medicine in the injector costs about $1). But earlier this month the company that produces
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