Part 5: Economics
Essential to every worldview is its view of which economic system works best to meet the needs of people. There are basically two economic systems available – capitalism and Marxism (Communism). Few nations on earth embrace either a pure capitalism or a pure Marxism; most nations use a blend of these two.
Capitalism is built on the concept of a free market, which means the exchange of goods and services is relatively free from government control and intervention. People bring their goods and services that they have created to the market and others purchase them with wealth. The one who receives that wealth then goes the market and purchases the goods and services of others using the wealth he or she has received. In this way, wealth is constantly being redistributed in the market place.
The great driving forces of capitalism are human need and human creativity. People need a variety of things to live. Food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education, health care, and a great many other things are needed to maintain life at a satisfactory level. Thus, those who are producers of goods and services are encouraged by the system to create items that meet the needs of people and for which wealth can be traded. Ambitious producers can gather wealth to themselves by keeping a close eye on what people need (and want), and on other producers so they can continue to improve their product and lower their prices (both of which benefit the consumer). Capitalism provides a strong incentive for new and improved products and prices that can be afforded by more consumers.
The downside of capitalism is that it can produce greed in both producers and consumers. Producers can gain control of the market for a certain product and charge high prices that only a few consumers can afford. This increases the producer’s profit, but leaves many consumers out of the market for that product, even if it is something they genuinely need. Conversely, consumers can counterfeit ideas and product designs, and sell them at very low prices, thus cutting into the profits of the legitimate producers and distributing inferior products in the market place, while putting wealth into the hands of the counterfeiters.
Also, capitalism can produce a greatly lopsided distribution of wealth, with most of the wealth in the hands of a minority of individuals who know how to play the market to their advantage, but leaving a large number of people with less than enough wealth to provide what they and their families need.
Marxism is based on the theories of Karl Marx who developed his theories in the nineteenth century. He envisioned a different model than that of capitalism. Instead of a free market place being at the center of the distribution of wealth, he conceived of a government office being at the center. The government would own all the wealth of the society. This would include all lands, buildings, goods and services as well as the creation of those goods and services and their distribution. This government office would determine what its citizens needed, how much was to be produced and who was to produce it and what the government (not the consumer) would pay for it. Each citizen would be given an appropriation of goods and services at the discretion of the government office in charge.
The goal of Marxism, which is also known by the name Communism, is to "take from each according to his ability and give to each according to his need." Marxism seeks a more equitable distribution of wealth where no one has more than needed or less than needed.
Criticisms of Marxism include the charge that it tends to rob the rich to pay the poor, that it kills incentive for producers to produce more and better goods and services, that it tends to raise prices for all, and that it tends to concentrate the wealth in the hands of those government officials who run the system.
Many economic models in use in the world today try to combine these two systems. Many countries have a market place which is partially under the control of the government. This is a regulated market place. Consumers and producers are able to meet together in the market place and buy and sell as they please, but there are rules they both must follow. The fewer regulations there are, the more the system operates as a free market system. The more regulations there are, the more the system becomes socialistic in nature.
Secular Humanism strongly favors a socialistic economic system. The Humanist Manifesto of 1933 and more contemporary revisions of that document agree that "a socialized and cooperative economic order must be established to the end that the equitable distribution of the means of life be possible." Humanists desire a system where individuals "voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good."
The socialistic views of humanists seek government control over the market place in several important aspects. They want to control the wages which are paid to workers by producers. They want to control the prices of goods and services by controlling the amount of goods and services produced and thus available. They want high levels of taxation that are especially heavy on the rich and less demanding on the poor. They want the government to use the money produced by these high taxes to establish government programs that keep an open flow of wealth to those deemed to be too poor to provide for themselves.
Secular humanist socialists do not envision a totalitarian state such as that demanded by Communism; they see a free society voluntarily cooperating in the redistribution of wealth away from the wealthy toward the poor.
Biblical Christianity does not clearly endorse any economic system. The church in Jerusalem in the early days of church history did try a form of limited socialism for a time (Acts 4:32-37). This was voluntary and limited to the members of the church. They sold possessions and gave the money to the church leaders to be distributed to those in the church who had needs. No government was involved in this; it was strictly a local church practice. Apparently it was abandoned after awhile for unknown reasons. Possibly it simply failed to work.
When left to itself, humanity tends to gravitate toward the use of a free market. People in both the Old and New Testaments owned land; many became wealthy. Abraham accumulated great wealth in his lifetime. Lazarus, Martha and Mary were wealthy friends of Jesus. A wealthy man, Joseph of Arimathaea, provided the tomb in which the body of Jesus was placed following the crucifixion.
But Jesus also taught that Christians were to minister to the poor and assist them using their own wealth. Jesus often healed poor people; on two different occasions He fed thousands of men, women and children miraculously because He saw their need and had compassion on them.
Biblical Christianity insists that people are sinners because that is the clear teaching of the Bible. Sinners, it is argued, can never "voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good." Inevitably sin in the form of greed will lead many to take advantage of power and opportunity in any economic system to gather wealth to themselves at the expense of others. Capitalism is known to produce arrogant and corrupt producers who selfishly hoard wealth for themselves. Marxism is known to produce arrogant and corrupt government bureaucrats who selfishly hoard wealth for themselves.
Those who conduct their lives on a Biblical Christian worldview generally favor a capitalistic system with some limited government controls. The freedom of capitalism appeals strongly to those who have been made "free indeed" by Jesus Christ. The checks and balances of capitalism tend to keep producers providing a quality product for a lower price, which also appeals to Biblical Christians. The fact that Marxism and Communism are strongly associated with atheism (Marx himself was an atheist), tends to cause Biblical Christians to distrust the more moderate forms of Marxism known as socialism.
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