The Power of the Poor - Part 1

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Actually, this is really about the power of the poor in the West, on the Weat and for the West, not everywhere.  And not the poor alone, but also all their cousins - the weak, the oppressed and the afflicted.  But I will use "poor" here to include all of these.

Why would the poor have power in the West?  Because the West, like other cultures, is founded on the base of its religion.  Like it or not, that religion - Christianity and its parent, Judaism - underlies not only our laws, but our institutions, governments and how Westerners grow up thinking.  It shaped what we think is right and wrong, what is worthy and unworthy behavior and what is admirable or detestable.  And that religion has very strong views about the poor and the afflicted.

That is to say, it shaped the conscience of Western civilization.  One part of that conscience has to do with how we view the poor and other disadvantaged people.  To the Western conscience, they should be a protected group.  Westerners may not always protect them, but they don't feel at ease about it.when they don't  They admire those who do protect and help them.

Here is the test:  how do you feel when confronted by a beggar?  Are you at all torn by the question of what to do?  Do you think about it longer than you mean to?

And here is the big test.  Do you realize how much your feelings about the poor shape your politics?  Even how you view your religion, or your lack of religion?

Questions about the poor are also questions of fairness and justice.  They are questions about our own humanity or inhumanity.  Ultimately, they are questions about God, or about the nature of the universe.  Why is there poverty?  Suffering?  Unfairness?  Injustice?   What, if anything, should we do about them?

What I recently realized is that what we believe to be the causes of poverty are perhaps the deciding factor in where we stand politically.  Think about it. 

For those who think that the poor are poor simply because they are oppressed, that belief will push them to the left.  They may go as far left as the Marxists, believing the only moral course is to enforce equality of income among all.  (Well, for all except for the favored few leaders, that is.)  They are drawn to the Marxist motto "From each according to his means, to each according to his need."  In their view, capitalism is the monster that oppresses the poor and therefore causes most poverty.

Or they may go only as far as working for a welfare state, with a "safety net" for the poor and afflicted.  Or only as far as "statism" where the government controls and plans a "mixed" economy (part capitalist, part socialist).  Or even only as far as "mercantilism" where the government regulates some businesses, subsidizes others, and controls foreign trade in favor of domestic businesses and labor.  Or perhaps they only go so far as being pro-union, believing that without unions, workers will be exploited by business and poorer as a result.

But which ever position they take on the sliding scale of the left, what they believe to be the causes of poverty is the major factor determining their political position.

On the other hand, those who believe that most of the poor have a reasonably good chance to stop being poor through their own efforts will tend to move to the right.  They focus more on opportunities to move up than on financial support for the poor.  They tend toward wanting pure capitalism, unregulated and lightly taxed, with government supplying enforcement of contracts plus protection from fraud, crime and foreign attacks.  They are convinced that capitalism does more for the poor than any other system, and that restricting capitalism results in more poverty.

What guidance do we have as to the actual causes of poverty?  The Bible points to numerous causes, including  oppression, denying the poor their rights, crime (no one could travel the roads because of robbers, until Deborah arose in Israel - very bad for the economy), fraud, abuse of workers, laziness, drunkeness, profligate spending (the Prodigal Son), partying all the time, sexual excesses, illness or disability, natural disasters, losing a war, being taken into slavery, being in debt, and being a widow, an orphan or an abandoned woman or child. 

And that is just the Old Testament!  The New Testament goes even further.  Then there is the stunning example of the first church in the book of Acts, where "all possessions were held in common, and no one said that anything was his own."  The Bible points to many causes of poverty.  But what it makes clear is that we have obligations to the poor and afflicted.  That is profoundly a part of the conscience that the West inherited from the Judeo-Christian teachings.  We are all influenced by it, regardless of whether we understand where it came from or its power over us.

So then, what are the causes of poverty today?  What can be done about them?  What actions are most helpful to the poor?  How can we tell? 

Also, how does the Western conscience concerning the poor and afflicted differ from the conscience of other traditions?  How does it affect the attitudes and tactics of activists?  Of non-Westerners? 

Tune in next time for Part 2.