Coconut Island
So, there are a bunch of us stranded on an island…rather than fighting against unknown monsters or DARPA nut jobs, our island is at peace. On our island, we have lots of coconuts, shells, water and other resources. Lets say that there are 40 of us. How do we share the resources? Can we all get along like a commune? Will the commune environment give the right incentives to ensure that the islands resources are properly exploited and fairly allocated? Can we keep Jack happy and treating sick people, and keep Sawyer from stealing all of the medicine and guns? Will Hurley eat all of the food? I read a lot of stuff from the Christian community about social justice and anti-corporate ethics, but I don’t think that things have been stripped back and really examined to say that “corporate” is bad and “poor” is good (or pick your own social justice phrase). I don’t think that Christian liberals (lets assume that this means those who desire social justice) have looked very hard at the issues; nor have Christian conservatives (I state the obvious here).
The heart of ethical analysis for liberals seems to be how to reallocate or compensate for the mal-behavior of evil people (normally via evil governments and evil corporations). The heart of ethical analysis for conservatives seems to be how to give rewards to those whose conduct complies with the conservative idealogy. How about an economist ethicist? Or a Christian economist ethicist? Maybe that person would make the very Christian assumption that all people are messed up sinners…as Chicago scool economists have put it “self interested.” This ethicist would ask how to structure society (or our coconut island) in such a way that the self interested nature is harnessed for the greater good of the society. I don’t think that the politics, society and culture of THIS particular coconut island would end up either “conservative” or “liberal.” I suspect that it would end up with a disparity between those who have a lot and those who do not have a lot. However, this society would give incentives to exploit the islands resources to encourage self interested people to harvest coconuts, fish, offer medical services, cook, build, etc. Those who are most resourceful at exploiting these resources would be the most successful: they would “have more” as a result of their efforts; the incentives would exist to encourage this behavior because the whole society gains from it. Of course, the incentives would not be without limit lest the “self interested” nature be permitted to amass and exploit without balance. A smart society that recognizes the “self interested” nature of humans as basically evil when unchecked would see that the exploitation of resources beyond certain limits would eventually lead to an imbalance that ultimately leads to disincentives for the other island occupants. No coconuts left? Big disincentive to everyone else. All coconut trees owned by one dude (Sawyer, for example): big disincentive for everyone else.
Look. Our sin nature is ignored in communalism, communism and related ideologies. We have to incentivize behavior that is good for society and disincentivize behavior that is bad for society. Social justice does not always do this. Obviously conservatism does not either. I have a lot of stories about landlording and dealing with drug addicted tenants. However, it never ceases to amaze me how many benevolent organizations are there to help the “poor” tenants who are being evicted by their ‘bad’ landlords (me?). They don’t seem to care that the woman that they are helping this week claimed she couldn’t pay rent last week but she had a stack of 100 bills in her wallet (I’m not making this one up). Or that she deals drugs and her unit is basically a drug store…she doesn’t want to get evicted because it’s her “store front” just like a 7-Eleven. If social justice helps her out, it is bad for society; her store stays open, takes rent money from other tenants and drags the whole block down. Get the picture?
At bottom, I am trying to reconcile my faith to money just like most other honest Christians. How much can I spend? How much can I keep? Should I give money away rather than buy an apartment complex? I am not reflecting on money, ethics and justice in a vacuum. In fact, I guess that I am accusing both liberals and conservatives of doing just that.
4 comments March 12th, 2006