It has been a few weeks since my last post, and I would like to thank the few, the proud, the readers of my intermittent ramblings. During this time I’ve been doing some research on the founding principles of the US Constitution, Economics, and learning about a Catholic economic model called Distributism, which claims to be a “third way” between socialism and capitalism (specifically, avoiding the centralization of political power in the former, while avoiding the centralization of economic power in the latter). Including the benefits of Distributism (or some elements thereof) in my economic thinking was suggested by one of my Facebook friends, Brennan, and since my next blog idea was to discuss government “solutions” within the context of social justice, I thought it might be worth the time to do some research in this area. The idea of a post on government solutions for social justice was seeded by an exchange with another Facebook friend, Travis, who is a classmate at Talbot, working on his Masters in Theology. So my heartfelt thanks go out to both Brennan and Travis, to whom I will be looking for feedback. I will only touch on Distributism in this post, but will follow up in more detail in the next.
Travis and I both attend a conservative school of theology and are both evangelical Christians, but from a political perspective, Travis tends to lean Democratic and is an Obama supporter, while I lean conservative and was a McCain supporter in last November’s election (well actually, I wasn’t a true supporter but believed McCain was the “lesser of two evils,” as it were). On matters such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research, Travis and I are in general agreement. Where we tend to disagree, however, is with the specific role of government in terms of social justice, which includes providing more resources for inner city communities and schools as they continue their epic struggles to this day. Travis feels Democrats are offering solutions whereas Republicans are not, but admits that after over forty-plus years of Great Society social programs, there has been little progress in terms of lifting those in the inner city out of the generational poverty, crime, and lack of education that continues to haunt these communities.
My assertion is that the proper role of government at the federal level is to provide a level playing field and to vigorously enforce such, which is consistent with conservative principles of personal responsibility, a small federal government with limited powers as outlined by the Constitution, and low taxes to spur economic growth such that opportunities abound for all who would take advantage of them. What I don’t believe is that government can “fix” these communities such that they will be able to effectively take part in the opportunities available. Why? Because I believe the problem has more to do with the decay of the family and moral values in those communities than any other factor. Though church attendance is high in inner-city black communities, the timeless values taught in church somehow do not effectively translate into action in terms of excellence in the classroom, strong family units, or abstinence until marriage as the ideal. So if the values which would preserve and uplift these communities are not practiced to any appreciable degree voluntarily, there is little government can do. But what the government does is to continue to sink federal and state dollars into these communities at the behest of liberal Democrats with little real results, only perpetuating a generational cycle of dependency, ensuring cheap and enduring votes for the Democratic party because of the perception that they are doing something. Apparently pushing for equal opportunity and the enforcement thereof, as championed by the Republican party during the civil rights era and beyond, is considered not doing anything.
What I am arguing as a conservative is that there is no government funded solution to the inner city problem that is purely a factor of government spending, particularly any solution as currently outlined by liberal Democrats. With a relativistic and mostly materialistic view of the universe, liberals simply don’t see that the problem is a lack of accountability as well as a lack of objective moral values and virtue in these communities. Over the past forty-plus years, liberals have rejected timeless and transcendent values that are vital to turning these communities around, instead promoting a “do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody” social policy concordant with a sex and passion-driven mainstream media, as if the only type of harm one can do to someone else is physical. From their perspective, one can engage in all other manner of risky and deviant behavior, but if one finds him or herself in a compromised situation, it is the government’s job to bail them out since they simply exercised their “right” to live their life in a capricious and irresponsible manner as they so decide with little thought to the consequences. In other words, one has rights but no concomitant responsibilities along with those rights.
The key issue Travis and I discussed was related to supply-side (or “trickle down”) economics as not benefitting the lower classes, and thus being a major factor in their strife. While I don’t believe supply-side economics necessarily are at fault, since everyone benefits through lower taxes for all that promote economic growth, I do see the downside to a purely individualistic approach and see some flavor of Distributism as a better model particularly within inner-city communities to harmonize the relationship between morals and economics, thus bringing healing to these communities. Distributism, as an economic system, promotes local control (through decentralization of political power into the lowest level possible), ownership of private property, self-reliance, industry and thrift, and community spirit. A Distributist system would, however, place spiritual and ethical demands on these communities to lessen playing out of their passions and appetites in favor of family unity, generosity, and cooperation. I envision this would consist of local government working with churches, charities, and private investors to setup guilds, cooperatives, credit unions, home-based businesses, and micro-credit banking to empower productive communities to become interdependent as opposed to being dependent. Though Distributist ideals have grown out of Catholic social doctrine, they do not demand adherence to the Catholic faith, but would rely on core Christian teachings as a mooring for economic and social policy within these communities.
I will expand further on how I envision Distributism working practically to promote social justice in my next post.
References:
Triolo, John F., 2008, Can Distributism Work? Part II. On-line. Available from Internet, http://www.thecontrariansreview.com/Can_Distributism_Work__2.html, accessed on 19 April 2009.
Society for Distributism, 2009, Brochure. On-line. Available from Internet, http://www.scribd.com/doc/13266644/The-Society-for-Distributism-Brochure, accessed on 19 April 2009.
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