Willow Branches in Autumn Winds

The Invisible Hand

The quote in my post yesterday brings me back again to a question that I find myself asking whenever I hear Christians tout free market capitalism as the biblical economic model, or whenever I hear the argument that a free market will regulate itself.

I have not studied economics, but I did have to teach an 8 week lesson on economics to an eighth grade class a few years ago, and I learned a bit in that process. One of the most basic principals is the “invisible hand”: the idea that when everyone pursues his own self-interest, everything will work itself out. 

Here’s my problem with that: people are selfish. We are sinners. All of us. How can we believe that all of us pursuing our own interests will somehow cancel out the effects of our inherent sinful selfishness? 

Almost always, pursuing my own self-interest is going to come at someone else’s expense. If I’m a big business, that expense may not be felt by my customers; I could produce a great product at a good price, my customers are happy and so am I. But what if, in order to maximize my profit, I decide to buy my raw materials cheaply from a company that happens to not pay its employees? 

I suppose ideally, my customers would find out about that and would stop buying products from me. But there are a few flaws in that plan: my customer might not care, because, after all, we like to buy stuff cheap. Or, my customer might never know, because I’m not transparent about where I get my raw materials. Or, this problem may be so widespread that it is virtually impossible for customers to buy all their products from companies who can guarantee those products have been produced ethically.

I realize this is an extremely complex issue, and it gets more complex when we start asking what role the government should play in holding corporations accountable for things like this. I realize that those in government are just as sinful as those in business.  

I’m not suggesting that socialism or any other system works better than free market capitalism. I’m simply pointing out a flaw in the free market system and wondering how can we as Christians believe that any human system is going to be free from the effects of sin. And how can Christians become so loyal to that system that they treat those who are suffering because of its flaws with disgust, disdain and even hatred.