ECONOMICS 1000 The world is in dire need of economic vision, especially those countries that so glibly sing the praises of so-called free markets. Have you ever seen an Economics text book? They're huge; filled with graphs and all sorts of gobbledygook. They're so involved with details and minutiae that they actually distract you from the essence of the subject. Economics is not that complicated; at least, it shouldn't be. Examined closely, it is clearly (and rather easily) discernable that it is nothing more, nor less, than the study of the Way (with a capital W) we allow people to access resources. All wealth is based on (and defined in terms of) resources. It doesn't matter how much money you have. It would mean absolutely nothing without resources. Reduced to its simplest terms, money is nothing but access to said resources. By resources, I do not refer simply to land and water, or animal, vegetable or mineral. Human labor (and/or) talent is also a resource. Of all the things we could know (and should seriously consider) about resources, one thing stands head and shoulders above all the rest: they don't belong to anyone. Even the Bible says so:
The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalms 24:1)
But if this is true (that the resources don't belong to anyone) how is it that some people seem to have so much more access to them than others? The answer to this somewhat disturbing question is very simple. Access to resources is governed by whatever economic system happens to be in place. Put a different system in place and you will see a difference in the way the resources are distributed. There are two basic types of economic systems, controlled and uncontrolled. With the world’s population now over 6-billion strong, it is easy to understand that completely uncontrolled economic systems are simply non-viable. Even in free-enterprise America more and more controls are ever necessary. In fact, they have been in place for some time. The practice of prostitution serves as a good example. It is controlled to the extent that it requires an underground market to flourish. Underground markets are essentially not controlled, which means that they can charge whatever they want (or whatever they can get) for their illegal goods and/or services. In consequence, a visit with a prostitute is undertaken at an exorbitant cost (sometimes personally and financially). Drugs (the street kind) provide another good example. If they were legally obtainable, their cost would plummet. In an ideal, non-controlled economic system, no goods and/or services are restricted. The providers of said goods and services are truly free to conduct the sale of their “wares” unhindered by any legal prohibitions. Needless to say, such completely uncontrolled economic systems are virtually nonexistent in the world of the 21st century, except of course on the so-called black markets. To avoid the gobbledygook that I mentioned at the beginning, let me just cut to the chase. Free (i.e., uncontrolled) economic systems promote economic growth, but (on the downside) always result in gross disparities (in the ability to access resources). It is good that economies grow, but unfortunate that excessive disparities always seem to appear as a byproduct of that growth. In the context of an economic system in which money is the preferred medium of exchange, it would be nigh impossible to fix this problem.
For the love of money is the root of all evil. (I Timothy 6:10)
Since the problem (essentially) is resources and unequal access to them, the solution - as the Asian wisdom has it - is in the problem. Firm policies should be established and enforced regarding resource access, period. Political entities - sovereign governments - make policies. Indeed, resource access should be the primary political issue. (As opposed to non-issues like abortion, prayer in schools and gay rights, which are little more than annoying, not to mention absurd, distractions from the real issue of everyone making a decent living.) Everyone, regardless of employment, chosen profession, entrepreneurial skill or just plain good (or bad) luck, should have fairly equal access to resources.
When you reap the harvest in your country, you will not reap to the very edges of your field, nor will you gather the gleanings of the harvest. You will leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am Yahweh your God. (Leviticus 23:22 New Jerusalem Bible)
In the government of God (the kingdom of God) it is very clear that economics is of prime importance. In fact, violations of God's economic policies were capital offenses, punishable by death:
You will not ill-treat widows or orphans; if you ill-treat them in any way and they make an appeal to me for help, I shall certainly hear their appeal, my anger will be roused and I shall put you to the sword; then your own wives will be widows and your own children orphans. (Exodus 22:21)
The New Testament interprets this in clearer language:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27 NIV)
In the kingdom of God, God is the government. The policies He establishes are sacrosanct, beyond debate. Political equality is thus a moot issue (as indeed it would be in the context of economic equality). In the United States, it is merely claimed that God is the ultimate power behind and/or supporting the government. The conservatives are eager to proclaim that free markets work. The poor respond that they work only for those who succeed, those who win at its contrived games of high finance. In the New Testament, Jesus was utterly fanatical about regenerating the kingdom of God - as it had been established under Moses, not as it operated under the monarchy of David. The people wanted the kingdom restored to the glories it enjoyed under David's rule, hence the popular phrase, Son of David, an accolade that Jesus never once used in reference to himself, preferring instead the somewhat enigmatic Son of Man title. Jesus was, if you will, the original humanist, and his economic policy clearly reflected it:
How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours. (Luke 6:20)
This sounds as if the poor will be entitled to a little more than the gleanings of the fields as Yahweh had set forth. It sounds very much like perfect equality in terms of access to resources. In the kingdom of God, our precious political freedoms will be replaced with even more valuable economic ones. If we enjoyed true economic equality, the political kind would become virtually irrelevant. Some of the so-called issues that we spend so much time arguing about, and debating over, would disappear, vanish in the twinkling of an eye. The importance of economic equality is especially evident when we consider the extent to which wealth is but a function of poverty. It is impossible to become wealthy in the first place without the presence of poverty in the background. The rich are literally defined in terms of the poor. They could not be rich without the labor (and suffering) of the poor. In other words, wealth is absolutely meaningless in the absence of poverty. It is not unreasonable to conclude from this that wealth, especially excessive wealth, actually creates poverty. Any government apprised of this fact is surely guilty of gross irresponsibility for not taking action to absolutely prevent the accumulation of such wealth, whether it accrue in the hands of an individual or a corporation.
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