Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Christian tradition demands basic sustenance for all as a human right. Yet the contemporary capitalist economy makes no such demands, and the free market is not designed to provide basic human sustenance. As Western Christians, how ought we to solve this conundrum? Kent Van Til maintains that the gulf between the two calls for an alternative system of distribution. In this constructively critical work Van Til takes a hard look at the realities of life in a free-market system, including illuminating examples from his own experience in Latin America. He considers how the contemporary capitalist economy guides the distribution of goods around the world, and he examines the inadequacies of this system. Drawing heavily on the ideas of political theorist Michael Walzer and nineteenth-century theologian-statesman Abraham Kuyper, Van Til proposes an alternative system of distributive justice, equalizing the claims to both burdens and benefits.
Table of Contents
Distributing Earth's benefits and burdens -- Defining terms -- Using the free market as distributor -- Adam Smith (1723-1790) -- The legal presuppositions of capitalism -- Psychological presuppositions of capitalism -- Mainstream economics -- The free market and distributive justice -- Why the poor won't necessarily gain from the free market's distribution -- More free exchange need not result in more well-being -- The strategy of rational satisfaction of an individual's preferences will not necessarily yield the greatest good -- The free market takes initial endowments as givens -- Even markets functioning in a pareto optimal manner will not necessarily provide basic sustenance -- The economic concept of value is not responsive to the claim to basic sustenance -- The incomparability of needs and preferences -- Conclusion -- What the Bible says about poverty -- Creation -- The Exodus and distribution of land -- Covenant law -- Advocacy for the poor -- Jubilee -- The poor are always with you -- The need to work -- Shalom -- Equality -- Bridges -- Conclusion -- Moving from the Bible to the present -- Contemporary theologies -- Basic needs -- Rights and responsibilities -- Conclusion -- Distributing benefits and burdens according to "spheres" -- Distributive justice and contemporary theory -- Abraham Kuyper -- Michael Walzer -- David Miller's appropriation of Walzer -- Summary and synthesis of Kuyper, Walzer, and Miller -- What we can really accomplish -- Promising economic directions -- Objections -- Poverty and development.