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Educational Freedom a Question of Social Justice
R&L: What prompted your involvement in educational reform, especially the school-choice movement?Ministries of Service in the Marketplace
R&L: Early in life, you considered entering the ministry but decided to enter the financial world instead. How did you integrate your inclination toward religious service with your eventual business career?To Be Drawn Out of Ourselves Toward God
R&L: In your new book, Things That Count, you have an essay subtitled, “The Problem of Possessions.” What is the problem with possessions?Private Property System Best Benefits Environment
R&L: It has been said, borrowing Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic, that an economist is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Assuming I place a high value on the environment, and knowing you are an economist about to talk about environmental issues, do I have reason to be ill at ease?
The Poor are the Solution, Not the Problem
R&L: In the first sentence of your book, The Mystery of Capital, you write, “The hour of capitalism’s greatest triumph is its hour of crisis.” The great triumph, of course, is capitalism’s victory over communism. What is the great crisis? De Soto: Everyone had high expectations at the fall of the Berlin Wall, when we thought that the “end of history” was in sight because market economies would allow all to flourish, but now there is a general feeling of discontent.Religious Education Indispensable for Free Society
R&L: How do you view the role of higher education—and of distinctively religious schools, in particular—in a free society?Judaism's Religious Vision and the Capitalist Ethic
R&L: Historically, what has been the influence of Judaism on the development of capitalism?Religion, Economics, and the Market Paradox
R&L: In your latest book, you compare economics to religion. Why? Nelson: Because economics is a belief system with powerful moral implications. I use the term religion in a broad sense, as something that provides a framework for one's values or some purpose to one's life. I am convinced that people must have some sort of religion, that no one can live entirely free from a framework of meaning. Of course, not all religions require a God, as Judaism or Christianity do.Christianity's Indispensable Social Teaching
R&L: You have done some scholarly work on the history of the church's social thought. What is Roman Catholic social teaching, and why is it important, particularly with respect to non-Catholics?The Human Dimension of the Business Enterprise
R&L: Until the recent announcement of your retirement, you had worked at your family’s company for over fifty years. In light of this experience, how have you come to understand capitalism?Globalization and the Christian's Response
R&L: Do you believe that there is widespread ignorance among religious leaders with regard to economic reasoning?Virtuous Business and Educational Practice
R&L: You have holdings in both large and small business enterprises. Does the executive of a large, multi-million dollar enterprise face any particular challenges to ethical business practice that an executive in a smaller business enterprise does not?