Make More. Take Less.

That's my simple, four-word message to anyone who wants to improve the world. Overwhelmed by an endless list of problems and feeling powerless to do anything about them? What can you possibly do about it all? How do you walk by faith and not by sight?

As it happens, you can do a lot more than you think even though it might look like a lot less than you think. As co-blogger Caleb and will explain in our forthcoming and available for preorder book Mere Economics, you can...

Make More. We can't feed, clothe, and shelter people without food, clothing, and shelter. Find ways to make more of what God has called you to make, whether it be food, clothing, shelter, art, economics lectures, audited financial statements, or non-nutritive cereal varnishes by working smarter, working harder, or both. By doing so, you make things a little easier for (say) aspiring architects. Your name may not be on them, but the buildings they design and build some day will be part of your legacy.

Take Less. We can grow next year's crop because we laid aside part of this year's crop for next year's planting. Laying aside a little more of this year's crop means next year's crop will be bigger. Alex Tabarrok explains how with the Super Simple Solow Model.

For the academic treatment that inspired me to live this way (and to encourage others to do the same), check out my paper with Gregory W. Caskey and Zachary B. Kessler, "Going Far by Going Together: James M. Buchanan's Economics of Shared Ethics." Here's the published version. Here's the working paper version.

Here's the abstract:

We explore themes in Nobel Prize–winning economist James M. Buchanan’s work and apply his Ethics and Economic Progress to problems facing individuals and firms. We focus on Buchanan’s analysis of the individual work ethic, his exhortations to “pay the preacher” of the “institutions of moral-ethical communication,” and his notion of law as "public capital." We highlight several ways people with other-regarding preferences can contribute to social flourishing and some of the ways those who have “affected to trade for the public good” might want to redirect their efforts. We show how Buchanan’s work has considerable implications for business ethics. Just as his economic analysis of politics changed how we understand government, we think his economic analysis of ethics can (and should) change how we understand business.