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reimagining Capitalism (part six: time to shut up)

I suppose it’s about time for me to wrap up my thoughts on Capitalism. Considering I’ve been thinking about it off and for about a month. Forgive me for my lack of clarity and sense of direction with what I’ve been sharing. They are more or less disconnected thoughts that I’ve been sitting with but unable to articulate clearly.

Again, these are my personal struggles. And in no way am I trying to make things normative. And while I do believe we should hold our government and corporations more responsible for the decisions, motives, and agendas they operate with . . . ultimately I believe turning this upside down system right side up rests in the hands of the called out community of God. Until we begin living with the values and ethics of the kingdom of God, we will never have justice in our economy.

To end things, let me say that I am a Capitalist. I have the luxury of existing and even thriving in a free-market economy. This is the great privilege of being an American. And even further a suburban, white American. Born into middle-class privilege, I stand relatively free of the “back-end” of our economy.

While it is true that our economy does reward hard-work and discipline. It also rewards practices that are less than ethical.

Think of it as a “cause and effect” system. The cause being making money or saving money. The “effects” being 1) poor service, 2) poor environmental standards, 3) poor product quality, and 4) poor labor practices.

In our economy, the upper-class are almost 100% free of any of the “effects” of either making money in the corporate world. Or saving money in the marketplace. And if by some chance they were to get close to experiencing the “effects” of their production and consumption actions . . . then they have money to buy themselves out of trouble. With bankrupt laws. Tax breaks. Write-offs. Political lobbyists. Their money talks and it talks loudly.

For the most part the middle-class is also relatively free of the “effects” of profit-making at all costs. One could certainly argue that the middle-class is even worse off because they are enslaved by the idea of moving up to the “upper-class”. They are always trying to keep up . . . move up . . . upgrade. With this desperate need to move up and up and have nicer and nicer things, it’s easy to see how easily the “effects” can be ignored. After all, if you’re not on the receiving end of you can ignore . . .

1) Poor Service - Because you have yet to experience it. Or you justify it as a cost of doing business.

2) Poor Environmental Standards - Because it’s not happening in your backyard. Or it’s not going to effect you . . . you can just let the next generation handle it.

3) Poor Product Quality - Because it only matters to you if you have something that resembles the real. Thus the need for fakes and knock-offs. Bottom-line . . . poor product quality equals cheaper prices.

4) Poor Labor Practices - Because it doesn’t matter to you that the only reason your candy bar is so cheap is because the chocolate industry hires children. Or that you have diamonds because the mining companies cut all kinds of costs on safety and labor. Or that your new purse or shoes or computer were made by the hands of a 15 year old working 16 hours a day, getting paid $1.25 an hour. Why does it matter when you save money?

The only people who really suffer in our economy are the lower-class. The system has created a vacuum for poverty.

All I am hoping for is a capitalism that no longer ignores the “effects” of our economy. One where the environment is cared for. One where we care about the history and origin of the product we buy. One where we are concerned about the global and local causes of poverty. One where we no longer stand for poor service and quality.

I am in no way suggesting a communist or socialist balancing of our material and intellectual goods.

I am simply saying it is time to be aware of how our economy “effects” our social world. It is time to become economically and socially responsible.  It is time that to realize that if it is happening to the the sweat shop worker or in the diamond mines or the cocoa fields . . . then it is happening to the least of these. And if I am the source of cause of this . . . if they are making products for me . . . if they are making things that I use . . . if I am enjoying financial reward because of how cheaply they can make things . . . then I am the one who is at fault.

And I must bear responsibility for that. And I must be an agent of change in this upside-down system where the rich get richer, the middle class  wreak of apathy and normalcy, and the poor get further mired in poverty.

© 2007 IAmJoshBrown.