This book just keeps getting better. In this chapter, Jay Richards counters the “piety myth” – focusing on our good intentions rather than on the unintended consequences of our actions. The Bible is clear that Christians need to care for and help the poor. But “piety is no substitute for technique” (so said Etienne Gilson); that is, “having the right intentions…doesn’t take the place of doing things right” (35). We are called to exercise prudence, to use our minds, to recognize that actions have unintended consequences – and even though we can’t anticipate all of them, we should recognize the ones that we see and act accordingly. Richards quotes Henry Hazlitt’s famous line from Economics in One Lesson, “The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.”
So many Christians have the right desire – helping the poor – but go about accomplishing this goal (or promoting the accomplishment of this goal) in ways that are unjust, ways that actually harm the very ones we desire to help (see the book When Helping Hurts for more on this reality). Richards sets forth the minimum wage/“living wage,” “fair trade” coffee, foreign aid, and government-run welfare programs as examples where the intention is good, but the actual policy or practice is positively harmful.
Richards introduces in this chapter a concept vitally important to prudent economics: local knowledge. F. A. Hayek has written about this in what is arguably one of the most important pieces to read in order to be economically wise, “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” The closer one is to the problem, the more information one has in order to most prudently solve it; therefore they have the first and greatest responsibility to address it.
Richards has some wise words concerning big government and taxation in this chapter: “[T]here’s nothing in the Bible that says, ‘Government expenditures must never exceed 15 percents of the gross domestic product. Twenty percent is an abomination to the Lord.’ The Christian tradition doesn’t give us any direct guidance on this, either. So how big should government be? That’s a prudential question that doesn’t have a unique answer. Still, it doesn’t follow that there are no good or bad answers…The problem isn’t simply that taxes are too high. After all, not all forms of taxation are unjust. Every government has to collect taxes to form services beneficial to all – to maintain courts, protect citizens from domestic and foreign predators, enforce traffic law and contracts, and so forth. These government functions stem from our inalienable rights. We have a right to protect ourselves from aggressors, for instance, so we can delegate that right to government. We don’t have the right to take the property of one person and give it to another. Therefore we can’t rightfully delegate that function to the state. Delegated theft is still theft. Using the state to redistribute wealth from one citizen to another is different from general taxation for legitimate governmental functions, such as those enumerated in the U. S. Constitution…” (52-53).
Richards gives five responses to those who argue that government transfer-of-wealth programs do a better job of alleviating poverty than private charity. In the end, he says, there is only one cure for widespread, generational poverty: the creation of wealth, and capitalism is the best engine for creating wealth (56, 58). There is a place for effective charity (and even government action) in extreme relief-oriented situations; but for true economic development, what is needed is not another concert with Bono, but “property rights, rule of law, personal virtues like diligence and thrift, ingenuity, cultural values like trust, an orientation to the future, and a willingness to delay gratification…Ministries that treat humans as fully spiritual beings rather than mere mouths to feed, that encourage economic freedom rather than government largesse, that teach the poor to fish, that instill Christian virtues – which ultimately transform culture – will do far more to reduce poverty in the long run than all the cool celebrity-led campaigns put together” (57). This is very vanilla, as glamorous as plain oatmeal – but it is the best way to enable the hungry man to fill his stomach on a daily basis.
SDG,
The Farmer
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