10 for 10: Voting Vision Not Division | Aligning Our Values with Economic Policies

In this episode, the Faith Commons team discusses how faith shapes our understanding of economic systems. From fair treatment of workers to addressing inequality, the conversation highlights how public policy can uphold dignity and fairness, encouraging voters to reflect on the ethical impact of economic choices as they head to the polls. The team emphasizes the importance of creating an economy that serves everyone, not just the privileged few.

What is 10 for 10: Voting Vision not Division? Starting on September 2, 2024 and continuing every Monday for ten weeks through November 4, Faith Commons is offering ten 10-minute reflections on topics related to the upcoming election through the lens of religion. Our premise is that religion should be used to unite people and groups of people rather than to divide them, and that the founders of our country shared our view.

Watch the video, here.

Mara (00:00):

Welcome to our next episode of 10 for 10 Voting Vision, not division. I'm Mara Richards Bim, and I'm joined by Nancy Kasten and George Mason. And we are Faith Commons. So today's topic is the economy. So, um, this is obviously a hot button topic in the election this season. So to start us off, I'm gonna turn it over to Nancy.

Nancy (00:23):

Thank you, Mara. When we talk about the economy, I, it's, I wondered what, what do we really mean by that? , and I was thinking, um, last week I went to SMU, uh, the Center for Presidential History offered a program as part of their third rail series, and there was an economist from the Heritage Foundation who was on the panel with a political scientist from the University of Texas who talks about, who teaches political values. And basically, you know, the question is, um, okay, it seems like the Heritage Foundation person is seeing this election as being all about the economy. And the political scientist is seeing it all about being all about values. And I thought, you know, that's kind of a false division, right? Because we talk about budgets being moral documents. Economies are also moral. How do we earn money? How do we spend money both as individuals and as a society?

Nancy (01:23):

And, you know, when we look at our faith values, there, there is no separation between the economy and our values, right? Our economy is supposed to comport with our values. And if we value individuals, and if we understand that we need everybody to, you know, be productive in our society, then we figure out ways to help the people who need help and understand that we all need help in certain ways at certain times. . So, you know, our biblical commandments really do reflect that where we treat workers fairly, where we, um, give them time off. And I think the most important thing we read in the Bible is about a sabbatical. Uh, you know, year when debts are forgiven. . And so when we think about our public policy with regard to the economy right now, I think, you know, you have to ask if you are taking away, um, a child tax credit that allowed families to stay in their homes, feed their children, and ke keep them in school, why would you take that away? Or if you think about a property tax uh, reimbursement that only goes, everybody pays into our taxes. But only the people who are, who own property get the benefit of that tax relief. People who rent do not. So I think we have to really, um, you know, think about how we honor people wherever they are, recognize that we shouldn't be passing policies that create generational poverty. That we have an obligation to help people in their communities helping themselves, valuing them, not punishing them for being poor.

George (03:20):

So the word for economy in the Greek is oiko nomia. It comes from two words, oikos meaning household, and, uh, nemein, which, uh, means to manage. So the idea is how do you manage the household in such a way that say, when everyone comes to the table, they all get to eat, that everyone gets to participate somehow. And maybe even that everyone gets to bring a dish or contribute to the household. So that's sort of the background of, of it. From a biblical standpoint, I think we have to realize that, uh, the context of talking about, uh, this biblically is a culture of sustainable, uh, and subsistence farming. So it was an agrarian culture, pre-industrial revolution. So the, the first idea of subsistence farming is, can we grow something that will sustain our family and keep us alive? Well from that then grow the rules for, well, what about those who can't?

George (04:42):

And then you have leave the corners of your field for the poor to come and to be able to, to take care of that. And so as all of this develops, and then it becomes much more complicated with the industrial revolution and mass production and mass consumption, and the idea of supply and demand and how to distribute, uh, all of this in a way that takes care of everyone, then we start getting more distance from the immediate question of how we care for one another. And this requires us to be more thoughtful about it. So traditionally economies are oriented around the question of means and ends. That is, how do we produce and distribute? And then what's the outcome of all of this? Traditionally what happens with capitalism say is it is really about the means without any judgment about what the outcome is ultimately.

George (05:50):

Now, it is fairly argued that global capitalism has raised the level of wealth and been a tremendous, uh, eliminator of poverty as an economic system. But what we all know is that the system itself creates enormous winners and losers. And if you just go back to the gilded age, you can see for instance, something like that, which is where government steps in. And the question of how much should government manage business `and the economy for laissez-faire economics that shouldn't at all. But our tax system is a way of managing that. And it's a way of saying, we don't want to live in a sit a a situation in which we have vast wealth on the one hand and great despairing poverty on the other. We think that people should have a basic right to eat and to live in certain ways. And so we have tax policies and government spending that mitigate the negative effects of raw capitalism.

George (07:07):

Well, if you go too far with that in a managed economy then you get towards socialism and toward communism. And that's always the, the red herring of those, uh, on the, the right who say, well, any government intrusion into the economy is really socialism. It's a redistribution of income. It's a negative impact on, on wealth creation and, and on risk and the things that make for a successful economy. But I think what we have seen historically is that we go through swings like this. And the New Deal was a way of co of saying we can't have, uh, no insurance and public insurance or people dying with, uh, living in their final years without a safety net of protection. And so we create these things together. My point in all of this is simply to say that as we look at biblical understandings, we should be thinking about ends as well as means and, and asking how do we wanna live together? How do we want to treat one another? And I think our, our faith tradition brings something to that conversation.

Mara (08:28):

Absolutely.

Nancy (08:29):

Well, I also really think about, um, you know, when the Israelites were building the tabernacle, right? Everybody brought something. Yes. It was about what you could give, not what you could get. Right. Good. Right. And I think, you know, everybody does have something to give, but if what they have to give isn't valued and isn't reimbursed at a level that Right. People don't value, then it starts to feel like they have nothing to give. That's right. And isn't that tragic? Right? I think about, you know how there are so many people who think the eco, there are people who think the economy is terrible right now. And they think people who think the economy is wonderful right now, if everybody could pay $6 for a dozen eggs without worrying that they wouldn't be able to pay for something else. Right. If they realize that that means that the farmers are getting paid, that the laborers are getting paid, right. That the, you know, chickens are being fed healthy food and we're paying for that and we have enough to pay for that it wouldn't be a problem. Right? So the question is, how do we develop systems where we value things other than, you know, the bottom line of how much money we're taking in and what we can afford?

George (09:41):

Someone, uh, is always saying the economy's good or bad. And my argument is, there's really no such thing as a good economy or a bad economy. There's just where you are in the economy. , uh, as to how it feels. Uh, but ultimately, you know, we need to be involved in this and that our faith does bring something to this conversation.

Mara (10:08):

Alright. All right. Well, thank you again for joining us for this latest episode of 10 for 10. Um, whatever you do, vote, we wanna see you out there voting and have a wonderful week.