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Acanthus Education: Economic Education Online

Acanthus Education assists teachers and students at the secondary level learn more about economics and the relationship between economic freedom and prosperity. We offer a variety of instructional resources and sponsor events that integrate ethics, philosophy, and economics, suitable for public and religiously affiliated schools as well as homeschool organizations.We offer free down loadable lessons, scholarly papers, and articles online for secondary social studies teachers and students. Acanthus Education also offers programs in the form of teacher workshops and conferences for public and private schools. Most of our work -- lessons, webinars, and class instruction will be available online to the public.

Acanthus Education collaborates with The Fraser Institute, which produces the Economic Freedom of The World Project, and The University of Arizona's Freedom Center , which investigates the philosophical roots of freedom. Acanthus Education is active in teaching online courses and teacher webinars at the Jesuit Viritual Learning Academy.

Acanthus Education is a 501(c)3 tax exempt public charity. Donations under $1,000 are accepted here, or by clicking any of the "donate now" icons on our pages.  For larger donations please contact Stephen Haessler at sjhaessler[at]gmail.com or 520-429-1223.

Teachable Moment: What Does Social Justice Mean?

Teachable Moment: "What does social justice mean?"

Alejandro Antonio Chafuen (President of Atlas Economic Research Foundation) discusses the meaning of the term "social justice" in the context of the pontificate of our first Jesuit Pope in his article "Social Justice and Pope Francis."  Ask the students to consider, does social justice refer to redistribution or to something else?

"From the moment that the term “social justice” became a mandatory term in the lingo of Argentine politicians, the country went down the hill. This was during the mid-1940s, when Col. Juan Domingo Perón created the “Justicialista” or the “Justice” party. Perón, an admirer of Benito Mussolini, was following his recommendation: in each country where it would be adopted, fascism will need a new name. The Latin word “fasces,” came from one of the symbols used by Romans to refer to justice. The fasces were the  axes carried by magistrates as a symbol of government authority and its ability to punish and execute justice. Perón made social “justice” a key pillar of his policies."

 

Click on the title to read the full article, "Social Justice And Pope Francis: Choosing Freedom Over Serfdom."

Teachable Moment: Is It Possible To Redistribute Wealth Without Redistributing Poverty?

Teachable Moment: Chavismo was popular among Venezuela's poor because it redistributed income and made classes more equal. Venezuela's income equality as measured by Gini Index improved during Hugo Chavez's rule. But Venezuela's oil industry, which accounts for about 15% of its annual GDP, suffered under Chavismo, with output dropping almost a third. It would be interesting to discuss with students their thoughts on the tension between income equality and wealth creation.creation.

Data for Venezuela can be found here on the CIA World Fact Book.

Teachable Moment: Competition

Acanthus Education is offering a new series called "Teachable Moment" using current events in Economics and Politics to offer short economic lessons taken directly from the headlines. We believe these brief lessons culled from current affairs will help help our students to connect the ideas they have learned in their classes to events that are happening in the world around. Here is a sample headline! Stay tuned for the lessons:

Teachable Moment: Will the European Commission's recent $732 million fine against Microsoft help or hinder competition among providers of internet browsers? View article "Busted For Browsing" from the WSJ.

Christina D. Romer and The Business of Minimum Wage

As congress continues to argues the merits along with the problems of raising the current minimum wage, economist (and former Presidential adviser) Christina D. Romer offers a measured analysis in "The Business of Minimum Wage, Employment" (New York Times) of the advantages and disadvantages of this economic administered price.

Here's a snippet from the article:

"Instead, most arguments for instituting or raising a minimum wage are based on fairness and redistribution. Even if workers are getting a competitive wage, many of us are deeply disturbed that some hard-working families still have very little. Though a desire to help the poor is largely a moral issue, economics can help us think about how successful a higher minimum wage would be at reducing poverty.

An important issue is who benefits. When the minimum wage rises, is income redistributed primarily to poor families, or do many families higher up the income ladder benefit as well?"

Knowledge Works Forecasts of Digital Education

This follows nicely on the heels of Paul Schwennesen's post on School Choice. Knowledge Works forecasts the future of digital education in preparation for Digital Learning Day.

"As Digital Learning Day approaches, I’m taken back to my days working on the 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning. While the 2020 Forecast was about much more than edtech and digital learning, there are certainly many connections between the future of learning and the digital learning revolution. As the 2013 version of the “big day” gets closer, I thought I would return to my future of learning roots and write a little on KnowledgeWorks’ most recent future forecast, Recombinant Education: Regenerating the Learning Ecosystem.

This Forecast 3.0 contains five disruptions that will reshape learning over the next decade. Below, I am going to outline the five disruptions in Recombinant Education and provide some signals, or “examples, or early indicators” of how each disruption is beginning to play out today."

Parents and School Choice

Here is a terrific opinion piece by Tuscon rancher and author, Paul Schwennesen at HuffPost Parents, On School Choice: "Something remarkable is occurring in the arena of schools: shopping. Not late summer back-to-school specials or runs on novelty lunch-boxes, but shopping for schools themselves."

Russell Roberts: The Future of Keynesiasm

What happened to the US economy after WWII when government spending dropped by 40%? What happened to jobs after the $878 billion stimulus package? And what is to become of MACROECONOMICS when one Nobel Prize winning Keynesian economist argues the stimulus should have been $2 trillion while another Nobel Prize winning Keynesian economist argues it should have been zero? Economics professor Russell Roberts tackles these questions in a fascinating article "Know Your Limits" in The European.This article is part of an ongoing debate series.

Here's a snippet:

"...The world is a complicated place. Lots of things happen at once. Correlation is not causation. Maybe factors besides government spending account for the lethargy of the US economy today or the vitality of the US economy in 1946.

"That is why I think it isn’t just Keynesianism that’s in trouble these days but macroeconomics in general, at least the way journalists and politicians expect us to practice it. When Nobel prize winners argue that the stimulus should have been $2 trillion while other equally illustrious economists argue it should have been zero and both have studies to back up their claims, one has to wonder how much science there really is in economics."

Dwight R. Lee: Corporate Giving

Economics professor Dwight R. Lee has recently posted a compelling article "Socially Responsible Corporations: The Seen and the Unseen" at the Library of Economics and Liberty in which he raises interesting observations about the role of corporate profits -- and where do these profits best serve the interests of the public?

Here is a snippet from the article:

"Bastiat's point is that the employment created by the broken window is easily seen, but what is unseen is the value sacrificed because the effort and resources needed to fix the window would have been used to produce additional desirable things if the window had not been broken. A similar problem of the seen and the unseen explains why corporations are often mistakenly credited with being socially responsible: they receive credit for things that are easily seen, while their harmful activities, which are often much more extensive, go unmentioned. Of course, some corporations are socially responsible, both in the seen and the unseen. But many are not."