A very famous man once predicted the future of the "free market":
1. Capitalism will move into a period of overproduction.
2. Wages will be reduced.
3. The worker's purchasing power will be reduced.
4. A surplus of goods will be created.
5. A war will be started to use up the surplus.
6. Postwar stress will end in the system's self-destruction.
Wow. This is frighteningly close to our situation. Today's financial world is run by large corporations, a.k.a. oligarchies, which is the older term for the same thing. The man who predicted this was born almost 200 years ago: The philosopher/social reformer Karl Marx. The above quote is taken from R.C. Sproul's The Consequences of Ideas if you want a further reading of Mr. Marx and friends. It seems as though Marx was right (at least to some degree) but he was just 150 years off or so. So what am I saying? Am I a socialist? Certainly not but that is the immediate response of many who hold strongly to today's capitalism. It is the red trump card they hold in their hand when anyone attempts to point out the faults of the free market economy. Newsflash. McCarthyism has not completely died out. Unfortunately, today's Christian has been caught in the cross-hairs because to be Christian is to be a capitalist--at least this is what American Christianity has come to mean for many. But is this right? Does God believe in free trade? This is a tricky question and I am not writing to defend Marxism nor Capitalism. No. I want to be a Biblical thinker. Let's use the wisdom that God gave us--His Word--not to mention our ability to reason. Wisdom is the ability to properly apply reason from what God has already revealed as true.
Thomas Aquinas was a smart guy. He laid down some pretty heavy stuff in his pivotal work the Summa Theologica. In it, he gives some very good guidelines for the proper use of money and lending. In response to the question "Whether it is a sin to take usury for money lent?" he states:
I answer that, To take usury for money lent is unjust in itself, because this is to sell what does not exist, and this evidently leads to inequality which is contrary to justice...
Accordingly if a man wanted to sell wine separately from the use of the wine, he would be selling the same thing twice, or he would be selling what does not exist, wherefore he would evidently commit a sin of injustice. In like manner he commits an injustice who lends wine or wheat, and asks for double payment, viz. one, the return of the thing in equal measure, the other, the price of the use, which is called usury...
Now money, according to the Philosopher (Ethic. v, 5; Polit. i, 3) was invented chiefly for the purpose of exchange: and consequently the proper and principal use of money is its consumption or alienation whereby it is sunk in exchange. Hence it is by its very nature unlawful to take payment for the use of money lent, which payment is known as usury: and just as a man is bound to restore other ill-gotten goods, so is he bound to restore the money which he has taken in usury.
Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Cardinal Virtues (QQ[47]-170): Question 78
Simply put, it is wrong to profit from lending money which doesn't exist. He argues earlier that a silver vessel has intrinsic value and can be sold or rented out lawfully for use, but the aquiring of money by using money that does not represent anything real is illegitimate. Wow! That's heavy stuff! Again, I am not trying to prove or disprove the validity of capitalism but merely to properly apply it. Certainly, had we listened to Aquinas our nation would not be in the current bind it is in.
Well, that's what some Philosopher thought in his ivory tower centuries ago. "Why should I listen to him?" you might say. Well, there is yet one more principal from a much higher source of ethical writings:
"If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest." Exodus 22:25
In the Hebrew context, what is meant by "creditor" is one who seeks to extort for selfish gain. We are not to take advantage of those who are in need. And yet this has become a cornerstone of American capitalism. It is usury in the worst sense. What must also be noted in this verse is that interest, in itself is not a sin, but excessive interest, specifically to those who are without the ability to pay it back.
One of the eye-opening realities I learned in my macroeconomics class at Cal State LA (go Golden Eagles!--the diablos for some of you older folk) was the crooked way in which banks "make" money. If an account is opened for $100, and a pretty low reserve amount of let's say $20 is kept, that same $100 is lent out maybe 5, 6, even 10 times over--magically creating capital out of thin air! This is astounding. It is no wonder that we have no more money--it never really existed. I know that I am over-simplifying many complex ideas and concepts about the free market system but I am attempting to speak on the level. The economists, lawyers, politicians, bankers and large corporations who have not upheld these Biblical principles are the ones who got us into this mess. So forgive me if I am a bit skeptical of their solutions.
It is time to get back to the basics. Who says the Bible is antiquated and too "out-dated" to suit the complexity of today's market? Well, it seems those in this camp are the same ones who need it the most.
