Free Market Speaker Series
Each semester we invite speakers from the business and academic world who address the underlying principles of a market economy. Students, faculty, alumni, and the Charleston business community are invited to attend our events.
Fall 2024
Think Differently Forum: Dr. Jason Brennan - "Why It's OK to Want to Be Rich"
Thursday, February 20, 2025 | 6:00 PM | Tate Center 202
Finger-wagging moralizers say the love of money is the root of all evil. They assume that making a lot of money requires exploiting others, and that the best way to wash off the resulting stain is to give a lot of it away.
Jason Brennan argues that the moralizers have it backwards. In general, the more money you make, the more you already do for others; even an average wage earner is productively “giving back” to society just by doing her job. In addition, wealth liberates us to have the best chance of leading a life that’s authentically our own. It's OK to want to money and to make it.
Jason Brennan is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He specializes in politics, philosophy, and economics. He is the editor-in-chief of Philosophy & Public Affairs, editor of Public Affairs Quarterly, and an associate editor of Social Philosophy and Policy. He recently completed a $2.1 million project on "Markets, Social Entrepreneurship, and Effective Altruism," funded by the Templeton Foundation. He chairs the Designing the Future(s) Committee at Georgetown, and serves on the Georgetown Faculty Senate. In 2024, he was named one of the best undergraduate business professors by Poets and Quants. In 2022, Brennan received the Provost's Innovation in Teaching Award for his development of the Ethics Project, a student-directed experiential learning project. He is the author of 17 books and over 100 academic papers.