Louisiana finds herself in the middle of a debate about the best ways to spur economic development. Regulatory reform, tax reform, budget reform, tort reform, and others are all part of the conversation. This is a long overdue discussion, but there is another aspect of the economy that also needs our attention – the end goal of it all. What is the purpose of a growing economy? How should we use the surplus that it creates? These and other questions must be answered if we want a rightly ordered economy here in Louisiana.
There are really only two options for these end goals. The first is what we will call the Golden Calf type of economy; the other is the Christian type.
The Golden Calf Type
For those who remember their biblical history, while the Holy Prophet Moses was upon Mt Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments and the other laws from the Lord, the Israelites had set up a golden calf to worship in the place of the Holy Trinity (Exodus 32). This is similar to what has happened in Louisiana and the rest of the States: Economic development by and large has become, not a means to an end, but the end itself. It has become the reason for being of mankind, and everything must be subservient to the growing economy, including Sundays and other holy days, family cohesion, etc.
The Pelican Institute formulates this secular vision this way in their Louisiana’s Comeback Agenda document: ‘Louisiana’s collection of safety-net programs needs a paradigm shift so its low-income, work-capable citizens can move out of dependency on government and find hope and lasting self-sufficiency. This starts with connecting people with a job, which is the best path to prosperity. Work brings dignity, hope, and purpose through the life-long benefits of earning a living, gaining skills, and building social capital.’
The measure of success in this vision of the economy is generally whether or not each generation is better off materially than the one before.
The excellent Southern writer, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, gives a helpful illustration of these elements in her short novel The Great Meadow, which follows a Virginia family of the late 1700s as they migrate into Kentucky for the sake of better economic opportunity. She writes,
Around them stretched the delirium of a fine land, level expanses delicately tilted to fine curves, here and there cane patches of rich fat growth, here and there noble trees. . . .
‘What do we want here? What did we come for?’ She was shaken with delight and wonder.
‘We want a fine high house, out in the rich cane. We want a farm to tend . . . fields . . .’
. . . There was a low temporary cabin on this ground, a mean hut which no one occupied since the enemy made life outside the fort insecure. Berk viewed this humble shed with contempt. ‘I want a fine high house, the roof high up off my head,’ he said, turning back to the stockade. ‘Room for a man to lift up his head in’ (Hesperus Press, London, 2012, pgs. 102, 108).
This, ultimately, is what man strives for in the Golden Calf economy: more, bigger, etc. Nearly all attention is focused on the material side of life, while spiritual things are mostly ignored.
The Christian Type
Economic development is not forbidden in the Christian vision, but it does happen sometimes in ways that are very different from those in the Golden Calf type, for the simple reason that progress in the spiritual life is paramount rather than material advancement alone.
We have seen how the Golden Calf economy sees a reduction in a person’s or generation’s material prosperity as an indicator of failure. Often in the Christian vision this has been seen rather as a sign of great spiritual progress. Across the wide expanse of Christendom, from the West to the East, scores and scores of men and women have abandoned all they possessed to become monks and nuns in monasteries or hermits in the wilderness for the sake of obtaining the Pearl of Great Price, union with God.
And in doing so, their holiness of life, the Grace of God that overflows from them, attracted hosts of people, seeking to benefit from their spiritual gifts of wisdom, healing, prophecy, and so on. In time, entire villages and even cities grew up around these isolated places in the middle of nowhere. In the far west, in Orthodox Wales, there is the example of St Deiniol of Bangor (reposed c. 584):
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The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2024/07/garlington-two-kinds-of-economies/.
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
