Those Disastrous Trade-Offs, by Randall Smith

Whistleblowers, Experts Warn of Increased Risks of Infertility, Death After COVID Vaccines, by Cheryl Sullenger
July 28, 2021
Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation: Joy in Finding Hidden Treasure and Pearl of Great Price
July 28, 2021

*Image: The Seven Liberal Arts by Giovanni dal Ponte, c. 1435 [Museo del Prado, Madrid]. Dal Ponte included more than seven figures in his painting to represent the liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the trivium) and geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy (the quadrivium). He also presents leading figures in each field: Ptolemy, Pythagoras, Cicero, and Aristotle and others. And fifteen angels.

By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing, July 28, 2021

Randall B. Smith is a Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas. …

Randall SmithOne of the valuable lessons classic economics can teach us is that there are always trade-offs.  If you invest in one thing, you won’t be investing in another.  You can see the bridge you spent money on, but you don’t see the hundreds of things not done because you spent money on the bridge.

When I was chairman of my university’s curriculum committee, proposals abounded trumpeting wonderful new courses.  My question was “What are you going to stop doing in order to do this?”  “No, no,” people insisted, “we will continue doing all the wonderful things we do now.”  “No, you won’t,” I would say.  “Everyone is working a full schedule.  …