Our usual reaction to everyday corruption - bribes, graft, payoffs, fixers, grease - is “so what?” For the pragmatic, everyday corruption is a cost of doing business, like the (possibly apocryphal) story of the New York contractor whose superintendent shows up for work with a roll of Benjamins to make…  [more]

What is the relationship between money and happiness? A recent piece in The Atlantic highlighted research contradicting scholarly consensus holding that after a certain point of material prosperity, there is a corresponding decline or flattening in the increase of happiness. The findings from the Brookings Institute - “Subjective Well-Being and…  [more]

There’s a lot of talk in faith/work circles about the idea of working for the common good - for the good of your neighbor, city, company, classmate, family member, environment and world. It’s a good idea and an integral part of a balanced vocational worldview. But I think it falls…  [more]

A recent Pew Research survey about modern parenthood revealed some interesting societal shifts. According to NPR's story on the survey: ... fathers spend three times as many hours a week on child care, and twice as much on housework, as they did in the 1960s. Sounds like a major shift,…  [more]

One of the greatest legacies left by C. Everett Koop, who died Monday at age 96, is his witness to the role of faith in public life. By the time he ended his eight years as Surgeon General of the United States in 1989, he was claimed as a saint…  [more]