Michael Kruse on Christian Economics

I know I've linked to this before, but it's worth the reminder. Michael Kruse is doing a series on Christian economics at Jesus Creed. It's fantastic. He has a new post on "wealth."

Do As We Say, Not As We Did

What do you think about this video from the New York Times about sweatshops in Cambodia? President elect Obama plans to launch a campaign to raise global working conditions. We would pressure foreign nations to abandon practices like the use of sweatshops.

The video argues that many people in the developing world would love to work in a sweatshop, because the alternative is digging through trash.

Obviously, none of us would like to work in a sweatshop, and the thought of our clothing being made in one makes us feel bad that we have eight-hour work days, child labor laws, unions, minimum wage, mandatory breaks, etc. But the narrator of the video makes a good point--the solution to global poverty is the introduction of manufacturing jobs to the developing world. Without manufacturing jobs, the poorest nations will continue to grow poorer.

When a nation develops a manufacturing sector, the initial jobs are in sweatshops. However, even these sweatshops boost the local economy and stabilize the government. Eventually, higher end jobs will come to the country, boosting the economy and stabilizing the government even more. Who would work at a sweatshop for $1 a day if the factory next door is paying $2 a day? Who would work for $2 if someone is offering $10? But, manufacturing jobs that pay $40 an hour are not going to move to countries like Cambodia. There isn't an education system, economy, or government to support it. Those need to be developed over time.

Now, the other side of it is that the people who control the means of production will exploit workers whenever possible. Even if a factory can afford to pay its workers a living wage, it may continue to pay them $1 a day--especially if poverty is rampant and uneducated people are desperate for jobs. So government/economic pressure is appropriate at times to make corporations do the ethical thing.

But here is the question of the day--Should we oppose sweatshops in countries like Cambodia, or are they a natural starting point for bigger and better things? And before we tell others what to do, perhaps we should think how our country became great. We have child labor laws and working condition laws now, but that wasn't always the case. America became great through sweatshops. Think China. Sweatshops in the past, economic superpower today. The same is true for both Japan and India. Is there an economic power today who didn't at one time use sweatshops? Do these powers have the right to tell others not to do the same--"Do as we say, not as we did"?

The World Is Flat By Thomas Friedman

Read this book.

In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman explores the world that has been "flattened" by globalization. He explains how we got here and what it means for nations, corporations, and individuals. Friedman argues that in the past, the global economy was run by nations. Then, it was run by large corporations. But thanks to the power of the global flatteners (internet, personal computers, fiber optic cables, etc.) the future of the global economy will be shaped by individuals. Today, anyone with a personal computer and an internet connection can start a business and compete globally.

I think I liked this book so much because I have been wrestling with ideas about global poverty, the Gospel's challenge to care for the poor and disenfranchised, and the reality of what I can do as a middle-class American Christian. I know I can't solve the problem myself, but I can at least be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

I think that micro-finance is the future of the western church's involvement in developing nations. America has grown great by our entrepreneurial spirit. Instead of exploiting developing nations so that we can live more comfortably, we need to encourage developing nations to industrialize and lift themselves out of poverty. A small loan of a couple of hundred dollars can be all it takes to help an entrepreneur in a developing nation start his or her own business. In this way, we are not handing out relief aid and teaching people to be dependant upon the provision of others, we are offering them a fair and reasonable way for them to lift themselves out of poverty.

I also highly recommend Erik Reinert's book, How Rich Countries Got Rich . . . And Why Poor Countries Stay Poor for an excellent discussion of how the developed world perpetuates the poverty of developing nations, and how we can change to better help them. If you want to know more about micro-finance and micro-enterprise, visit http://www.kiva.org/.

Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright (Chapter 1)

To this point, this blog has been limited to my thoughts on various books, devotions from various biblical passages, my thoughts on American evangelicalism, and updates about my life. Since I know that people actually read this blog occasionally, I have decided to introduce a new aspect. Instead of reviewing an entire book, I am going to pick one of the books that I am reading and offer up a thought from it for reflection and/or discussion.

The first book about which I want to do this is N.T. Wright's book, Surprised by Hope. If I haven't mentioned it on this blog before, N.T. Wright is my hero. In my opinion, he is the premier New Testament scholar today. He is a brilliant communicator and has superb research and analysis skills. I like British biblical scholarship better than American because Americans try to get cutesy and creative, while the Brits are more realistic and, in my opinion, relevant. (There are some notable exceptions to this blanket condemnation of American scholarship. Further, in a lot of ways American evangelical scholarship is ahead of mainstream American scholarship in that evangelicals take seriously things like authorial intent and external evidence.)

I like Wright's book already. It has two major themes: eschatology and politics. What do we believe will happen in the future? How should that affect what we do today? I love those questions. So, here is the thought from chapter 1.

"This book addresses two questions that have often been dealt with entirely separately but that, I passionately believe, belong tightly together. First, what is the ultimate Christian hope? Second, what hope is there for change, rescue, transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present? And the main answer can be put like this. As long as we see Christian hope in terms of 'going to heaven,' of a salvation that is essentially away from this world, the two questions are bound to appear as unrelated. Indeed, some insist angrily that to ask the second one at all is to ignore the first one, which is the really important one. This in turn makes some others get angry when people talk about resurrection, as if this might draw attention away from the really important and pressing matters of contemporary social concern. But if the Christian hope is for God's new creation, for 'new heavens and new earth,' and if that hope has already come to life in Jesus of Nazareth, then there is every reason to join the two questions together. And if that is so, we find that answering the one is also answering the other." (N.T. Wright, Surprised by the Voice of Hope: Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church [New York: Harper One, 2008], 5. http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Hope-Rethinking-Resurrection-Mission/dp/0061551821/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210181042&sr=8-1)

The Left Behind, Dispensationalist eschatology gets hated on by a lot of contemporary authors (Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, for instance). Is this justified? Does the "escape" mentality keep us from social consciousness?

How the Inner-city can Save the Suburbs

I had a great lunch meeting with some people from the Northwest Leadership Foundation yesterday. Duncan Wilson, Kris Rocke, and Ron Vignec joined me at this Thai restaurant on the MLK in the Hill-Top area of Tacoma to talk about ways that Believers Fellowship can develop a relationship with the city of Tacoma. What a conversation! Duncan is the director of Sound Youth Counseling, a ministry that offers masters-level counseling to the youth of Tacoma for sliding-scale fees so that no one is turned away. Ron is a Lurtheran pastor at a sweet inner-city church in East Tacoma and he also works to raise awareness about the different "associations" within the city of Tacoma. Kris works for NLF, specializing in urban youth ministry. He trains leaders in the city to better understand the urban context both in America and worldwide.

Our conversation revolved around how suburbanites can get involved in the city without doing more harm than good. We all recognized a couple of things about our world. First, we agreed that something is wrong with our socio-economic system in which people in Gig Harbor and East Tacoma can live so close to each other and yet live such radically different lives. He agreed that the Gospel compels us to right what is wrong in our system. Second, we agreed that building real, meaningful relationships is the best way to "help" the city. For instance, Ron mentioned that food is always a need in the city. It's one thing to set up a food bank where people can come and get groceries. It's another thing to have food available and then bring it to people's homes and share their lives. While the former might provide some temporary relief, the latter is working toward a solution to the problem. As long as the suburbanites continue to view city folk as charity cases or problems-to-be-solved, they will make the situation worse rather than better. Only where there is a give-and-take in a relationship can there be meaningful growth.

I appreciated what Ron and Kris were getting at, but I had to ask them their thoughts on this issue from my perspective. I said:

"What does all of this mean for me? I live in Port Orchard. I work in Gig Harbor. I get up every morning, drive to Gig Harbor, work my job, and then return home. I rarely go to Tacoma, even though my job is only 11 miles from downtown. I recognize a disparity in the living conditions between the communities in which I live and work, and in the inner-city community, but I don't have any meaningful contact with inner-city folks on a daily or weekly basis. How, then, do I try to be a part of the solution rather than the problem? Do I just focus on Port Orchard, since that is my community? Do I try to build relationships in the city with people whom I otherwise wouldn't see? (That seems a little artificial to me.) What do I do?"

Everyone recognized the problem, and we dialogued to come up with a solution. The following conversation is paraphrased:

Kris: "Everyone whom I've ever met that moved from the suburbs to the city said that the move was healing for them. There is something about living in the city that is therapeutic. Suburbanites need to discover how the city can help them, not just how they can help the city."

Ron: "In the city, you can't hide your problems. If you have a drug problem, you might have to rob/shoot someone to pay for your habit. Then the story goes all over the news and everyone knows about it. You can't hide your problem. In the suburbs, you can hide your problems. The problems in the city and in the suburbs are the same, they are just easier to hide in the suburbs."

Matt: "There is a real problem in our suburban culture with people learning to be real with each other. I've heard suburbanites described as 'strangers living hospitably amongst one another.' We've created this system where failure is not an option. Sure, people work hard and they succeed, but they are also pressured to conform to a culture of success. Every now and then, someone snaps, and everyone wonders, 'How could that have happened in our community? Why didn't anyone see this coming?' In reality, there are hundreds of people an inch away from snapping, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them because they have learned to play the game."

Kris: "Maybe the city can help the suburbs by teaching people how to grieve. Maybe when suburbanites are confronted with people who can't hide their problems, they will be more willing to own up to their own shortcomings."

Matt: "Wow. Sounds like the church."

We need to build relationships between the city and the suburbs, but these relationships need to be give-and-take, not just us going dowtown to solve poverty.