Patrick T. Brown is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he writes on family policy. He is a former senior policy advisor to Congress' Joint Economic Committee, and lives in Columbia, S.C.
In a world where 'success' is increasingly understood as zero-sum, we might have some empathy for today's parents who are worried they are letting their kids down if they are not setting them up to succeed, even if that comes at a collective cost.
Date posted: 2025-11-29
To get us out of the self-consuming ouroboros of frantically chasing experiences rather than investing in home and relationships will require a greater attention to virtues of thrift, local commitment, and a lower bar for what "living comfortably" looks like. Choosing to do hard things - to start a family, have kids, invest in local institutions, and put others before ourselves - requires a formation in values that lie outside the marke
Date posted: 2024-06-22