Fast Takes: Free Xis political prisoners, the cost of degrowth and more

Gen Z’s interest in Christianity is booming, but they seem to be “just finding content about God,” laments Freya India at The Free Press.Ample content online — from influencers, podcasts and hashtags to Bible apps and subscriptions — makes “learning about the faith” feel “easier than ever,” but yields a “shallow faith,” one “fast and convenient.” Beyond the apparent “gamification of Christianity,” religious apps share the same problem as Instagram communities or online porn: You encounter “the virtual version of everything first, before the real thing.” Instead, offer Gen Zers “something otherworldly” that “doesn’t abide by market logic”; warn them that faith is complex and “to know more about it, the subscribe button won’t help.” They must “step into church.”Thomas Piketty, the “rock star” French economist, offers a plan for “global managed decline dressed up in the language of climate justice and equality,” warns Reason’s Veronique de Rugy. He’d “cap gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in wealthy countries at roughly $69,000.” This allows just 0.115% annual growth for the United States, which now averages over 3%.

Anyway, it’s impossible to “restructure the global economy at that scale without a coercive apparatus that dwarfs anything in human history.” Above all, the scheme conflates “two very different things”: poverty and inequality.Degrowth is dreamed up by “people who already have high incomes, comfortable apartments, generous health care, and pensions.” This “villainous plan” would harm not “just the billionaires but every American.”“Inflation was too high again in May, with the consumer-price index coming in” at 4.2% for the last year, laments The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board.

One silver lining: “This was better than markets expected given the oil price shock,” and core inflation (sans food and energy) slowed to a 2.9% annual rate, suggesti...