Towards a Moral Economy

Morality and Economics. Those are two words that we seldom see juxtaposed in  print. And I suspect that we seldom associate them in our own minds. We hear a lot about the economy these days. "The economy is up"; "The economy is down"; "We're in a recession"; "Maybe the economy needs another stimulus package"; and on and on we go. Our chief concern with the economy seems to be only how much wealth is presently flowing towards us. In fact, that seems to be as far as our definition and understanding of economy goes. A good economy means that I am making more money at the moment. "Good" has no specially moral value in the above sentence. Perhaps we might feel an occasional self-righteous hint of moral repugnance at the size of the National Debt, or the disparity between the rich and the poor in America, but beyond that morality remains largely unconnected in our minds with the economy. Yet economic structures contain all the necessary ingredients for moral culpability or virtue, and demand moral thought and action from us, as much as government, environmentalism, politics, business, and our inter-personal relationships do. When we leave morality out of politics, business, relationships, etc... well, I probably don't need to finish that sentence--we've all seen where it goes.

Let's glance at morality for just a moment. Morality has to do with relationship. Relationship is implied in every moral action. To see this, let's take an extreme (and impossible) hypothetical example. Suppose that nothing existed except you. No God, no universe, no people, and no possibility of anything else ever coming to exist. There is no law for you to break, there are no persons for you to hurt, and no God for you to offend. Without relationship to a law, or God, or nature, or other persons, your actions will have no moral significance. Morality enters the scene the moment a relationship is established.

Now, hold that thought for a second, and let's go back to economics. The first part of the Merriam-Webster College Dictionary's definition of economics reads as follows: "The social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services...." Through this definition we can see that economics deals with very relational topics. Production involves labor, or work. Distribution involves buying, selling and shipping. Or to put it more simply: trade. So economics involves work, trade, and consumption. Now it is almost self-evident that these three subjects are fundamentally relational and moral.

 The first subject, that of work, involves relationships between employer and employee; relationships between co-workers; and moral subjects such as just wages, fair hours, and a healthy work environment. Even the self-employed worker still experiences relationship. Perhaps he  needs to feed a family, or help support a neighbor. At the very least he works to take care of himself, and this implies not only his own personal happiness, but also his relationship to others. As Donne reminds us, no man is an island. And, fundamentally, work is a moral topic because it involves the very dignity of man, and his relationship to God. "In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work." (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2428). In proportion as work lowers the dignity of the worker, it becomes morally unacceptable (except for certain special situations involving higher causes).

The second subject, trade, clearly involves relationship, and hence carries with it a number of moral concerns as well. Supply and demand, pricing, competition in the marketplace, etc., are all issues that offer countless opportunities for good or bad moral behavior.

And clearly the final subject, consumption, brings up moral questions such as greed, waste, environmental effects and so forth.

So we see that the economy cannot be  divorced from moral considerations, and that the economic systems and structures of a  country or community should be established with certain moral principles in mind.

If the economic structures of that country or community are of such a nature as to easily allow the dignity of the worker to be abused, fair trade to become difficult or impossible, monopolies and mega-corporations to control most of the marketplace, prices to be unfairly fixed,  production and consumption to negatively effect the environment,  and the ownership of private property to be greatly reduced or abolished, then that country's or community's economic structures may be considered immoral.

Factory work. Government subsidized farms. Lack of small farms and businesses. Marketplace (and political) control by mega-corporations.  Strip mining. Abuse of natural resources. Lack of private property. Loss of individualism and creativity on the part of workers. Imbalanced supply and demand (e.g. corn). Necessity for excessive working hours. Heavy tax burden. Overwhelming debt to other nations. Staggering rates of unemployment.

This is America. Something is wrong.

I am not presently focused here on whether the economy is booming or not (though that is important, and affects us all), nor am I qualified to offer suggestions on how to reduce the National Debt. But if we have lost sight of the basic principles that should rule any economic system, such as the right to private property, the dignity of work and the worker, etc., then perhaps it is time to rethink the entire system from the roots up.

Thoughts or suggestions, anyone?