Market Economy vs. Market Society

Last updated on: August 15, 2012 at 10:37 pm by Bob Robinson

Market Economy vs. Market Society 2012-08-15T22:37:30-04:00 Bob Robinson

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Capitalism, as a system, is neither moral nor immoral—it is just one economic system, one that seems to us fallen creatures to be the best that humanity has created thus far. Christians can, and probably should, support free market capitalism.

But I want to quote Gideon Strauss of The Max DePree Center for Leadership from an article he wrote when he was with Cardus. He makes a very important distinction.

We believe markets to be the best way—no, the only sane way—to structure interactions in economic life. We don’t only believe this because of the historical evidence from the complete failure and ghastly horror of socialism and fascism, but even more because we consider markets to be built into the very design of economic life. Markets as the proper setting for economic interaction, for buying and selling, are in our view a feature of the structure of reality. So we flagrantly support the idea and the reality of a market economy.

But this does not mean we support the idea of a market society. Human life is not all about economics. Contrary to rational choice theory, we human beings do not make all of our decisions simply in terms of cost/benefit analyses.

While economic life needs room to flourish, and needs protection from the encroachment of excessive government intrusion, it also needs limits. The sphere of economic life does not only provide businesses with a space for their wealth-generating manufacture of products and provision of services, and labor unions with a space for negotiating fair participation in these activities—it also sets the outer limits for business and labor.

There are many spheres of human life where economic considerations appropriately play a role but do not dictate decision-making. Families, schools and hospitals all have to balance their books—but they don’t exist to balance their books. In each of their cases, love, learning, and care, respectively, trumps the bottom line.

One of the great challenges facing us is cultivating a society in which economic markets can flourish, but without overwhelming other spheres of human life.

What do you think?

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