Instead of a day to bring attention to workers through
parades and civic events, it is now a day for shopping, family barbecues, and
marking the end of summer—and in fashion the end of wearing white shoes until
Easter. We don’t actually learn much about workers on this day. Nor do we give
a holiday to many lower skilled workers—food service, retail, theme parks,
movie theaters, etc. So, as a holiday, it lacks meaning. But we enjoy the day
off.
When I was growing up, we never started school until after
Labor Day. That’s still true some places. (Daughter Social Sphere starts her
college semester tomorrow.) But here in Texas, many public schools started last
week. So this is a chance to regroup, gather supplies, and breathe one more
time before diving in to daily routine unbroken from now until Thanksgiving. (The
year we moved to Texas, school started August 11th, which was
particularly painful because we’d left a district that hadn’t ended until two
weeks into June. It took until just a few years ago to push Texas schools later
into August, long past the years we were using them.)
I thought, in the spirit of the day, it might be worth
looking at the concept of labor, which is a positive thing.
I’m about halfway
through a book called Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution, by theologian Wayne Grudem and economist Barry
Asmus. It’s an economics book, for general readers, with an emphasis on what
systems and policies can get a nation from poverty toward prosperity. (Hint:
natural resources and receipt of nation-to-nation aid don’t bring people out of
poverty.) And it uses a Biblical approach; it looks at particular ideas and their
known outcomes, and compares them to what the Bible says. It turns out, a free
market is the most moral, and the most likely to both require and encourage
moral behavior in citizens. Property rights (thou shalt not steal), honesty and
keeping contracts (thou shalt not lie/bear false witness), and respect for life
and liberty all directly contribute to prosperity.
I first heard of this book when the author was being
interviewed on the Hugh Hewitt show (August 19, but you might need a membership to
listen to the archive. Hewitt plans a week-by-week look at each chapter of the book starting, I think, this week). The connection between freedom, free enterprise, and
civilization sounded very much in line with Spherical Model concepts.
They talked about the idea of “earned success.” I hadn’t heard that exact phrase
before, but it struck me as true. I found the phrase in the book (on my Kindle,
so no page numbers, but at location 3790), where he quotes Albert Brooks: “The
secret to human flourishing is not money but earned success in life.”[1]
Brooks studies what makes people happy, or satisfied with
life. There are other life factors as well, relating mostly to living the laws
of civilization, emphasizing family and religion, but the economic factor
contributing best to human happiness is earned
success, which Brooks defines as “the ability to create value honestly—not by
winning the lottery, not by inheriting a fortune, not by picking up a welfare
check. It doesn’t even mean making money itself. Earned success is the creation
of value in our lives or in the lives of others.”[2]
I’d like to add that stay-at-home mothers earn success without a
paycheck.
On a national scale, rather than promoting redistribution of
wealth, governments would do their people a financial favor if they encouraged
earned success. One policy Grudem talks about is micro-capitalization. I’ve
been intrigued by this concept for a few years. LDS Humanitarian Services
started using this practice after the Christmas tsunami in Indonesia in 2004,
which was the first I’d heard of it. They would interview the survivors
about what they needed. Beyond the immediate offerings of food, clothing and
shelter Humanitarian Services was known for supplying in the wake of disasters
around the world, the survivors needed a way to replace some of what they’d
lost, to get back on their feet and self-sustaining. Sometimes the aid provided
a sewing machine or two, plus enough for a few starting supplies of fabric and
thread. Sometimes it was a fishing boat, or even just a new sail.
The book Influencer
(by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler of VitalSmarts) talks
about the process of combining microloans with a small group council, to
improve the success of fledgling businesses. They use as an example a small village
in central India, where a group of housewives meet to discuss ways they can
individual develop very small businesses, such as starting an egg business.[3]
Grudem suggests that organizations, or perhaps wealthy
individuals looking to invest capital, make the microloans, rather than
governments. And he encourages slightly larger investments as well:
While many organizations have promoted microloans (typically
under $250) to start one-person businesses, we are also aware of encouraging
cases in which Christians have decided to invest in for-profit businesses in
the “small and medium enterprise” (SME) range, where $25,000 to $1 million is
required to start a business. Such businesses are crucial for larger economic
growth in poor nations, but they are more difficult to launch due to high
start-up and due-diligence costs, and the challenge of providing a reasonable
risk/return model for investors.
Foreign aid, or government aid, that does not encourage
independence, or earned success,
binds people in poverty.
Sometimes there’s an immediate need to give a man a fish. But
that is never a long-term solution to his hunger. You teach a man to fish, and
he has the skill to take care of himself. But maybe he also needs the means to
make or otherwise get hold of a fishing pole or net or boat.
Following up each concept, Grudem gives a follow-up of the
concept in scripture. One detail he brought out, that I guess I needed
reminding of, because I hadn’t really noticed it, was that Adam and Eve were commanded
to work in the Garden of Eden, to till and tend it, to be stewards over the
earth. After the fall, out in the cold cruel world, work started having more
challenges—heat, drought, insects. So work came to require more sweat to get
from subsistence to creative, innovative earned success. But doing work is
important to human beings, no matter how many basic needs are met.
Human creativity—our work— is part of our purpose and
happiness on earth. Labor on, and be good at what you do. It pleases God, and
will please your soul as well. We want that for everyone.
[1] Arthur C. Brooks, The Battle: How the Fight between Free
Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future (New York: Basic
Books, 2010), 71.
[2] Ibid., 75.
[3] Patterson, Kerry, Joseph
Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Influencer: The Power to
Change Anything, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008), 168.
Labor Day is a product of the labor movement; i.e., labor unions, which makes me less enthusiastic about it. customized shopping
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