RESPONSE TO READING QUESTIONANAIRE

Allen Johnson

Spring, 1996

1. Bibliographical Data:

Beyond Poverty and Affluence: Toward an Economy of Care by Bob Goudzwaard and Harry de Lange. Wm. B. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1995.

2. Summary:

Beyond Poverty and Affluence sounds a clarion trumpet for radical paradigmatic shift from a growth-infused free market economy to an economy in which the essential needs and quality of community present and future within a sustainable environmental carrying capacity are paramount. Authors Bob Goudzwaard and Harry de Lange argue passionately that poverty, environmental degradation, unemployment, and debt are now embedded structurally into the fabric of our present global economic order, a crisis of culture whose roots as well as hope for renewal lay in the domain of the religious and sociopolitical (p. 39).

The authors are sobered by this daunting challenge in the face of powerful vested interests toward paradigmatic change, yet propose a "Twelve-Step Program for Economic Recovery" in which oikonomia, "household stewardship," would be the over-riding economic goal. Such paradigmatic revolution will "require nothing less than a conversion" (p. 134), a task the Church should step up to.

3. Comment from a Personal, Critical Perspective:

To Goudzwaard's and de Lange's thinking, the "invisible hand" of the free market is a hand that takes from the poor to give to the rich (p. 74). To bolster this argument they point to statistics that indicate a yearly net transfer of $50 billion from developing countries to the industrialized nations (p. 11). Since the growth-oriented market is stimulated by greed and self-interest, is it therefore legitimate to expect the Church to oppose the present economic order as idolatrous and inimical to God? Not! It continues to be an irony that some of the loudest voices clamoring for biblical fidelity and morality are neoclassical economists enamored by the magic of the unrestrained market.

Personally I resonate with Goudzwaard and de Lange. Is not community with God and therefore derivatively with one another and creation what our soul longs for? How can one then pray, "Thy Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven" while simultaneously shutting out the poor, irreparably destroying the environment, snubbing the future, and coveting and chasing material largesse?

Beyond Poverty and Affluence is a vision and prescription of how the economy could practically work in modest, sustainable, and fulfilling fashion for all. It is well-reasoned, consonant with Christian faith, and inspiring. But how does one begin, that is, me back here in obscurity, for I am not an influential economic policy wonk. Would Goudzwaard and de Lange have some tips for the "wannabe" pioneer under conviction by The Spirit for a lifestyle and salting witness toward an economy of care?

4. Two Quotes:

Advocates for an unrestrained free market posit that a resultant healthy economy "trickles down" to benefit all. Goudzwaard and de Lange counter this simplistic notion of

"win-win." "We must promote the notion that when we simply apply the market mechanism, invariably the unused productive forces orient themselves to those with the highest incomes" (P. 74). Along these lines the authors quote President Nyerere of Tanzania concerning competitive leverage. "Poverty and underdevelopment in Africa cannot be seen separately from the wealth and technological 'headstart' present elsewhere. The existing pattern of the division of wealth in the world is a legacy which buckles over independent Africa. But it is not Africa's own doing. It is not insignificant that one quarter of the world's population receives four-fifths of the world's income. Wealth creates more wealth, and poverty leads to more poverty, as a result of increased investment possibilities and one's power or powerlessness in relation to others" (p. 15).

Centralized government policy can effect economic shift. Goudzwaard and de Lange propose a government bias toward community health and environmental sustainability. "We must therefore introduce into the entire range of government economic policies, including its fiscal policies, the principle of social, environmental, and energy selectivity, so that government can provide a maximum contribution to the sustainability of society as a whole."

"We urge levying a higher goods and services tax on capital-intensive and environmentally damaging products; a lower goods and services tax on environmentally friendly, labor-intensive products and activities in the service sector; and a lower goods and services tax on public transit and repairs to existing products" (pp. 146, 147).