How Much Is Enough? by Arthur Simon

Author:Arthur Simon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012000, book
ISBN: 9781441210012
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2003-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

Capitalism

My affluence and yours, the nation’s affluence, and our consumption-oriented culture—all of them—are tied to free enterprise. Free enterprise has proven to be a remarkable engine for economic growth and for its ability to stimulate the kind of innovation that can expand opportunities and improve lives. Think of telephones, cars, airplanes, food, farm technology, and medical progress. That these advances generate jobs on a large scale further benefits entire populations. Who can doubt that this kind of material progress is part of the “everything” in the earth that belongs to the Lord (Ps. 24:1) and that we are commanded to take care of and utilize?

For all the good it can do, however, free enterprise capitalism has grave defects. These defects gave plausibility to that woefully misguided venture called communism and, more recently in the Islamic world, to radical ideas about imposing strict Islamic law on societies. Capitalism stimulates and thrives on our human desire to possess more, a desire that instinctively gravitates toward greed, which tends to create disparities that make some rich, while leaving many impoverished. It is good at generating wealth, not so good at spreading it around. A related defect is that free enterprise does not distinguish between selling Bibles and selling drugs or sex. It is simply driven by the profit motive. There is nothing wrong with profit if it is obtained honestly and justly and used in a godly way. But the profit motive appeals to our acquisitive nature. It nourishes greed and can make us callous to the suffering of others. In short, the genius of free enterprise is also its central problem.

Left to its own devices, free enterprise capitalism would ruin the environment and let people starve. As a result, no nation leaves free enterprise entirely on its own. Every country will devise policies that, at least to some extent, guide free enterprise toward serving the wider public good, in this way acknowledging that while free enterprise may be a remarkable engine for driving economic growth, an engine is not the same as a steering wheel.

Every one of the fifty United States offers free public education and requires school attendance at least through the age of sixteen. Despite shortcomings, that policy helps to equalize opportunity and prepare young people to participate productively in the U.S. economy. By itself, free enterprise would not do this. But the public has decided to spread some of its wealth to all citizens through education, to the benefit of everyone, including private enterprise, which is rewarded with better trained and more innovative workers and leaders.

Another example of giving free enterprise guidance is legislation that taxes high incomes at a higher rate than low incomes. Environmental regulations aim at limiting pollution of air, land, and water, and at restoring them from damage already done. Roads, police and fire protection, and a host of other tax-supported services help businesses as well as individuals. Safety nets, such as food stamps and Medicaid in the United States, universal health care in Europe

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