These "logical ends" may seem, at first, to benefit society, but in the long run, as Christians, we will have to rise above the pressure to conform to these ideals, because they focus on creation of wealth, at the expense of living ethically.
I'll cite a few things from this article, and this article. (Although I'm not concerned with the effect on higher education, as this point- just trying to get my mind around the long-term implications of this line of thinking.)
"Neoliberalism, in theory, is essentially about making trade between nations easier. It is about freer movement of goods, resources and enterprises in a bid to always find cheaper resources, to maximize profits and efficiency."
It's all about free markets, and allowing the economy to regulate itself, etc, with which I don't necessarily disagree. What they fail to mention, is how they came to these conclusions.
Neoliberalism is based on the idea that what's best for the economy and the people is the solution that offers the most profit or payoff. Stanley Fish gives a very good example in his blog post, to which I linked earlier:
"In a neoliberal world, for example, tort questions — questions of negligence law — are thought of not as ethical questions of blame and restitution (who did the injury and how can the injured party be made whole?), but as economic questions about the value to someone of an injury-producing action relative to the cost to someone else adversely affected by that same action. It may be the case that run-off from my factory kills the fish in your stream; but rather than asking the government to stop my polluting activity (which would involve the loss of jobs and the diminishing of the number of market transactions), why don’t you and I sit down and figure out if more wealth is created by my factory’s operations than is lost as a consequence of their effects?"
So, basically, it boils down to a very familiar phrase, which doesn't seem to be supported in the Bible, "The ends justify the means." If there's a higher payoff to what you're doing, it doesn't matter who you step on. As I said above, as these ideas begin to infiltrate our society, as Christians, we must rise above, and continue to do the right thing! No doubt, they will try to convince us that the most "wealth-creating" solution is, in fact, the "right" solution, but we know what our morals are, and we are practiced at living ethically (even though we sometimes screw up).
In our hearts, I think we know the ends do not justify the means.
What do you think?
3 comments:
I have not yet read the articles you linked. But one thing that comes to mind is something that one of my economics professors drilled into us in college. 'Economics is not a normative science.' What he meant - and I agree - is that economics can only tell you what will happen if you do something. It cannot tell you which alternative is better.
One of the classic examples in macroeconomics is the trade off a country can make between making guns and making butter. Economics cannot tell you whether guns or butter are better. that requires something else: morals, religion, philosophy, etc.
You are probably right in describing neoliberalism as a way of thought.
Interesting. How did this spark your interest, I'd be interested to know. Neoliberalism is a big topic in poly sci... one of the things I had to write about in my exams last fall. It's kind of a vast pit of definitions, though... many ppl use and define it differently. In general, though, these articles get at the pro free market, anti state ownership aspect that is central. I'm somewhat surprised by your take on it, though, b/c I thought you were a free market advocate.. did this change your mind, or is it just the extreme of it that you object to?
Fascinating topic... one of my favorites.. probably the area that has been the most intellectually challenging in my academic life in the past few years.
You're right Caress- I'm definitely all for a free market. I just don't know about the government being completely hands-off when it comes to moral issues...that's where they've been involved in the past; rooting out unfair monopolies, providing some amount of regulation, to ensure that we're all "playing fair." I guess my concern is: "What if no one ever wants to play fair?" Do we really want the government to completely step out? Then on whom does that responsibility fall? For sure, on the individual, but some might also say the responsibility falls on the church. I'm not sure that's possible, seeing how we're currently structured...maybe I need to start a non-profit organization :) "Jess's Ladies for Fair and Ethical Business Practices."
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