Hunter Baker

Author, professor, and provost at North Greenville University. World, ERLC, Acton, Modern Age, CRCD, Braver Angels, Land Center, Touchstone. AMDG.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@rhett_burns But let me say this. If your question is do, I think you are a conflict entrepreneur, the answer is I do not. As far as I can tell, you have a substantive concern that you have advanced in a reasonable fashion.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

Starve a conflict entrepreneur. Feed an earnest and respectful engager.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@rhett_burns Rhett, I’m not going to do that. I want to draw attention to the problem. If I start naming names, I just empower the bad actors. I want people to see it in action and turn away from it.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@BjornLomborg @ImdaVinman Absolute must read.

[Bjorn Lomborg @BjornLomborg]

20 years ago, An Inconvenient Truth put climate change at the center of global debate, shaping politics, influencing leaders, and inspiring a generation of activists.

Two decades later, we can assess not just its impact, but its accuracy. Many of the film’s most alarming predictions did not materialize, while many of the policies it inspired have proven costly and ineffective.

The lesson? Panic is a poor guide for public policy. Focusing on innovation, adaptation, and economic development can do far more to help both people and the climate—at a fraction of the cost.

https://t.co/EIJyuNeFU1

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@TheGadFlyRising It’s in Marx and Engels Collected Works.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

You know who Marx’s co-author and sponsor Friedrich Engels disliked the most by his own account? Charles Spurgeon.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@CBSNews I'm GenX. I've spent my entire life assuming I'd get screwed on Social Security.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@BobMcCartney_ Supposedly Engels told it to his daughter. But I would need to research it. Easy to believe. Think the times fit.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@AndrewTWalker @pastorclint Amen.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@PierceJB @drandrewhebert That’s happening left and right. Constant manipulation.

[The Baptist Review @BaptistReview]

We asked @HunterBaker about what he calls "conflict entrepreneurs" and how we tell the difference between poeple with legitimate differences of opinion and people who thrive on ginning up conflict. Listen to his answer:

[Handre @Handre]

The most spectacular economic miracle of the last 500 years occurred as food consumption dropped from 80% of income to 3%. Your ancestors spent virtually every waking hour and every earned dollar feeding their families. Today you casually toss organic blueberries into your cart without checking the price.

This transformation didn't happen because governments subsidized agriculture or bureaucrats planned better crop rotations. It happened because private property rights allowed farmers to capture the full value of their innovations, spurring relentless productivity gains.

Consider what free markets accomplished: wheat yields per acre increased 10-fold since 1800. Corn production exploded 6-fold per acre since 1930. The price of basic foodstuffs, adjusted for wages, fell by 90% over two centuries. Each breakthrough, from the steel plow to hybrid seeds to GPS-guided tractors, emerged from entrepreneurs risking their own capital to solve real problems.

The profit motive drove farmers to maximize output while minimizing inputs. No central planner could coordinate the millions of decisions required: which seeds to plant, when to harvest, how to transport goods, where to build storage facilities. Market prices transmitted this information instantly across the globe, connecting Iowa corn farmers to Tokyo consumers without a single bureaucrat involved.

Politicians love claiming credit for "feeding America" through agricultural subsidies and price supports. Yet these interventions consistently reward inefficiency and punish innovation. The real heroes remain the anonymous farmers and inventors who transformed scarcity into abundance by following price signals rather than political directives.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@Handre The math ain’t mathin’

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@dandarling Well, it was you, someone else, and, of course, the committee! But yes, you provided some great stuff.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@EWErickson Wilson typically emcees the big pro-life banquet in Columbia.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@ianbremmer My only beefs with the NBA have to do with rampant traveling fouls (not called) and flopping.

[Nathan Creitz @nathancreitz]

Great panel on church and state with @bartbarber @MusingsOnChrist @deaninserra and @hunterbaker.
Good to hear Roger Williams mentioned!

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

@DennyBurk Credit goes to the original submitter and the many outstanding theological and pastoral minds on our committee.

[Hunter Baker @hunterbaker]

This South Carolina gubernatorial primary is getting uglier than any race I've seen. If anybody's stayed out of the nastiness, they deserve votes! Who's got the clean hands? That's how Bill Lee won two terms in TN.