Breakfast with a Side of Economics
Yesterday the Leadership Institute welcomed Art Carden, assistant professor of economics at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and 129 others for LI’s monthly Wednesday Wake-Up Club Breakfast.


Watch his full speech here.

Dr. Carden is a strong advocate for free markets and economic liberty. In addition to his professor duties, he is a senior research fellow with the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics, a research fellow with the Independent Institute, and a regular contributor to Forbes.com.

"Redistribution doesn't solve poverty; it's economic freedom that solves poverty in the world,” he  shared yesterday. "When we redistribute land from private owners to government, we are lowering economic growth in the long run."

Americans have a right to the income they earn, Dr. Carden said. And when people are over-taxed, it reduces their incentive to work and in essence the government is making the world poorer, he argued.

Dr. Carden has written papers on economic development, southern economic history, and Walmart.

He argued that immigrating to the United States should be easier. Immigrants help grow the economy because they bring skills to America; they do not take jobs away from Americans.

"We need open and competitive markets. The Institute for Justice argues that one in three people need a government license to engage in their chosen profession -- this is absurd."

Dr. Carden made arguments against the minimum wage, saying that it creates unintended consequences such as unemployment in the long run and enables the “rent-seeking society” – those that are  directly pick-pocketing other people's pockets.

He closed by stating that we need to think hard about where we have come from, where we currently are, and where we're going. Should we be focused on questions of redistribution or economic growth, and how do we recapture property rights and a competitive market?

Please join LI at March’s Wake-Up Club Breakfast on March 6. Sign up here.


 

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