We Can Create the Economic Balance We Want

This article is from the chapter “Finding a Path to Economic Justice,” in Destiny: Our Global Community by Robert L. McCan

Let us be clear:  we will have the kind of economic system that we create.  We can make it more equitable the minute we collectively decide to do so.  If we have a laissez faire economic model that is creating enormous wealth for a handful of people while others are so poor that they go without food or shelter or medical care, then we have created an unwholesome system that defies our stated dream of justice for all.  If our economic system produces a majority of citizens who can barely keep their heads above water economically, living from one paycheck to the next, while at the same time it creates vast wealth for a few individuals, then we have failed to create a just economic system.

We are not at the mercy of immutable forces ordained by Adam Smith or predestined by a wrathful god.  Rather, we created the present model—and we can change it.  The good news is we know how to create enough goods and services to achieve an acceptable standard of living for all people, if both money and opportunity are distributed more equitably throughout the economic system.

Some people attempt to justify unfettered capitalism with the proposition that people can only be motivated by greed, the driving principle for unfettered capitalism.  We observe that people can also be motivated by an appeal to the noble vision of service.  Further, people can be awakened to the truth that their true self-interest is most secure in a society of widespread well-being.  Most people will gladly focus on the common good rather than self-interest alone, if they are presented with a vision of how their lives and work will have greater meaning.

In the upward evolutionary spiral, we all thrive and prosper more when we focus on the good of the whole rather than our immediate self-interest alone.  When we work together with a generous spirit, we produce outcomes that are better for everyone than when we are fighting among ourselves, competing for superior advantage.  This is the nature of emotional/spiritual maturity, the basis for hope in tomorrow, and the secret of a sound economic system.