St. Maximos' Hut

I appreciate Robert and Andy's postings on the benefits and dangers of markets. My take on the issue is that every social coordination device and every age have their own temptations and distractions. I think the biggest problem (I wouldn't call it a failure) with markets is the fact that they are so successful in creating material wealth. In so doing they create an enormous temptation to find material well-being as the sole end of life.I am grateful for the coordinating functions of markets (really property rights and prices)but I also find that the abundance of the market economy can seduce me into incorrect valuations of what is important and unimportant.

I don't have a good metric for comparing the temptations and distractions that lead us away from God in different societies and at different times. However, as I read history I find that alternative mechanisms of social coordination usually involve concentrations of power, and such concentrations provide enormous temptations for sin, temptations that have caused more human suffering than the materialism fostered by markets.Therefore, I come down on the side of free markets as the best way of organizing impersonal relationships across time and space. But I think we should be aware of the particular distractions markets offer and do all we can to keep them from overwhelming our lives and taking our eyes off of God and his goodness.

I also find plenty of warnings in the Bible on this issue. For instance, when God had led the the Israelites into the Promised Land and blessed them materially he said:
"When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine house and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. . . You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth . . ." (Deut. 8: 10-18a, NIV).

I would interpret that last verse about God giving us the ability to produce wealth as also applying to God giving us the ability to use social coordination mechanisms (property rights and prices) that produce wealth. God seems to see that as a good thing, but also warns us that the wealth contains real dangers, namely, it can take our eyes off of God. Thus I come down on the side of using markets as the way of carrying out exchange (especially at the impersonal level) but I don't think such a system is without its problems.

One of the best books that I have found on the subject is Craig Gay's Cash Values: Money and the Erosion of Meaning in Today's Society. (Eerdmans 2003).