How do you tell the difference between honorable wealth and unjust riches? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1309).
In
pure capitalism prices are determined by the market. But in terms of
labor the market alone is not sufficient for a fair and just
distribution of wealth; in capitalism, almost by definition, capital
rules. That is, the labor market sets a price below the true value of
the worker who generates wealth for the capitalist. The owner of
capital usually has sufficient labor supply available such that labor
scarcity does not enter into the equation in many instances. Thus
unpleasant as it may be ideologically speaking, it is necessary to
administer the price of labor to a certain degree (as with minimum
wage legislation).
Another
way of saying this is that the concentrated power of capital trumps
the weak and vulnerable position of labor . The power imbalance is
often egregious. This may not be the case in some exceptional
instances – such as the power imbued by the limited supply of brain
surgeons. But we must get accustomed to the idea that exceptional
cases make for bad general policy.
How
is the price of wages to be administered? What is a fair wage? In
many instances the answer is imponderable and the prescribed red-tape
prohibitive and paralyzing. Thus regulation cannot determine all
prices. However, it should be clear that if a person is working two
jobs totaling 40 hours or more, he or she should be able to make a
living wage and not be imprisoned in poverty. The capitalist is
clearly favored by the status quo and has the upper hand and will no
doubt resist change that would increase the power and influence of
labor, especially of the most humble sort. Unfortunately within the
political economy, the capital/labor remuneration equation can be a
zero-sum game. Nothing can obfuscate this unpleasant fact.
Public
policy must reflect fairness and justice rather than economic
ideological purity even in a system patriotically characterized as
capitalistic. To do otherwise would be to make an idol of a
conjectured economic structure, a configuration that is inherently
imperfect when applied in the real world. And why are corrective
measures necessary?—because we are a nation “under God” which
acknowledges principles of justice and fairness not realized by
egocentric drives for power and profits. Right is not determined by
might—not even that of economic power and property or the invisible
hand of self-interest. Any unlimited drive—especially that of
self-interest in an imperfect market—is self-defeating and ultimately
self-defacing. Only in theory are markets free. The characteristics
of capital (such that it can be stored over time) ensure that vast
inequities exist in the market making it singularly hostile to
establishing a fair playing field and severely burdening some by the
heavy weight of history. That is, some make their entry into economic
life severely handicapped. Are we really ready to assert before God
Almighty who through providence can level any playing field with one
sweep of his mighty hand that we are not in the least interested in
His Golden Rule plainly set before us as the abiding standard for
addressing social needs?
