Orthodox Reflections

Economics – the dismal science. While everyone participates in the economy in some way, very few want to think too deeply about it. That seems to include Christian Theologians, who should be at the forefront of discussions over the economy as prices, interest rates, labor regulations, environmental regulations, immigration, etc. all have massive impacts on the health and well-being of their flocks. But alas, that usually is not the case. Christian leaders seem to think it is much more important to argue over transing toddlers, killing babies, and marrying homosexuals.

Almost seems like those kinds of issues are deliberate distractions… Nah, too conspiratorial. It’s just a coincidence that most Christian leaders are too busy talking about “culture war” issues to have intelligent, discerning discussions over economic matters such as expanding debt levels or the insane concentration of corporate ownership in the hands of Venture Capital companies.

When Christian leaders do focus on the economy, their output is usually some kind of “shopping list” of preferred economic policies / regulations. An illustrative example of that is below, taken from For the Life of the World Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church:

Moreover, no one should labor without respite: the Church insists that a just economy or business is one that insures not only the reasonable productivity and respectable pay of workers, but their opportunities for sufficient rest from work, for recreation, and for restoration of body and soul with their families, friends, and communities. It must require of every society with the means to do so that it protect its workers—both documented and undocumented—against abuse, humiliation, neglect, and cynical exploitation. It must ask of governments that they pass laws that make it possible for employers to provide jobs but not to treat labor as a mere commodity or business expense without any special moral status. Every advanced economy must, if it would be just, make it a matter of law and custom that those businesses that enjoy incorporation in nations that provide trustworthy legal systems, functioning financial institutions, and basic civil freedoms must be willing, as part of their social compact with those nations, to comply with laws and practices that provide workers with humane conditions and living wages, and that forbid complicity in corrupt systems of structural poverty in other nations.

Don’t think of people as commodities to be bought and sold. Don’t work your employees to death. Don’t abuse and humiliate them. Pay workers a living wage. Give them time off. Some good things are in the list. However, that document, like so many other “Christian treatments” of economic matters, never asks the big question – what is the actual purpose of an economy?

So, let’s ask just that very question. A secular definition of the purpose of an economy will read something like this:

The purpose of an economy is to allocate scarce resources efficiently, allowing for the production and distribution of goods and services to meet the needs and wants of people within a society, essentially aiming to improve the overall well-being of its citizens by utilizing available resources to their fullest potential.

The first thing to notice is that we live in a world of scarcity. That means choices will have to be made in what is produced, and how goods and services are allocated. Who will make those choices? On what basis do we decide who gets scarce resources and who doesn’t? Societal and government priorities are going to matter, because you can’t do everything for everyone all at once. Some goals have to wait. Others might have to be postponed indefinitely.

The other thing you will notice is that the definition is focused on now. We want to maximally utilize resources to meet needs and wants now to achieve improved well-being. The common “text book” definition of the purpose of an economy contains nothing about the future. Get it while the getting is good, because in the long term we are all dead anyway.

No wonder we are spiraling as a civilization.

But is that really the purpose of an economy? To increase the “well-being” of citizens through efficient utilization of scarce resources? What is “well-being” from an individual perspective anyway? Does having more stuff increase “well-being”? Can you live alone in a McMansion on top of a horde of top-tier merch and experience a genuine feeling of “well-being”?

Let’s look at another perspective on what an economy is for. The quote below is from a document drafted by the Russian Orthodox Church in March of 2024:

The main goals of the domestic economy should be the growth of the real well-being of Russian families, an increase in the number of jobs, ensuring an increase in the birth rate, the settlement and development of vast Russian spaces, ensuring the sovereignty and defense capability of the country, as well as the competitiveness of Russian technologies, goods and services in the domestic and foreign markets.

The main purpose of the economy is not the present improvement of the “well-being” of individuals at the cost of ignoring the future. Nor is it to make a few overlords fabulously wealthy while everyone else begs for scraps. It is also not “Maximizing Shareholder Value” in an ever rising stock market casino.

According to the Orthodox Christian perspective of the Russian Church, the primary purpose of the economy is provide the means for citizens to form and support large, healthy families living in comfortable suburban settlements. Those of us who are both Christian, and conversant in economics, have been talking about the need for “family friendly” economic policies for years. Those policies were normally advocated for in the same kind of “shopping lists” quoted earlier – higher child tax credits, school choice, reduced inflation, lower property taxes. Some good ideas were put forward, but the “pro-family” faction was just one more interest group competing with immigrants, childless cat ladies, and the National Security State to get regulatory and legislative attention. Our disjointed wish lists, put together with no underlying theme really, almost always got pared down, ignored, or so reduced in scope as to be meaningless.

American families always end up as the last priority. There is always another war to fight. Another expensive fighter jet to acquire. Foreign aid to dole out. Corporate donors to pay off with public funds. Always something more important that leaves American families increasingly worse off than before.

Which is why, having been trapped in this system my whole life, reading that short quote from the Russian Church absolutely blew my mind. What if families are not just another competing priority? What if enabling the formation and maintenance of strong families is actually the entire point of the economy, and everything else must be evaluated based on whether it contributes to that goal?

People are meant to live in families, which are the primary building blocks of civilization. Families provide love, stability, pooled resources, and automatically represent an investment in the future. Families anchor their members in the community. They are the primary method of passing on societal norms and traditions from one generation to another. What care the childless about unsustainable debt levels or lack of investment in infrastructure? But parents? They care greatly about the world their children and grand-children will inherit. Parents are willing to make sacrifices in the short term to build a better world for their progeny.

The voluntarily childless want it all, and they want it now. These self-worshipping individuals, often subscribing to various political religions, are currently running our nation into the ground with almost no serious resistance.

Just how bad are things getting? At Church coffee hour recently, I sat with several childless young couples in their 20’s and 30’s.  All of them want children. Some of them desperately. All of them are working fulltime. Several in professional jobs. So why no babies? Because they can’t pay their bills as it is. One couple has to get food money from their parents, because their rent and car insurance consume most of their paychecks. Another couple had already resorted to living with parents to save on housing costs. None of them owned a home, nor could any of them even imagine when they might be able to buy one. It was a seriously depressing conversation.

Anecdotal, you say? Sure, but the numbers testify to the reality of their pain. While real wages have been steadily eroding for decades, the spike in costs of essentials since January 2021 has put many lower and middle-income earners into severe financial distress.

For many younger Americans, no matter how hard they work, there is just no way to achieve the success their own parents had at a comparable age. Children are now considered a luxury.

It is even worse for those who can’t find a job at all. Since October 2019, native-born U.S. workers have lost 1.4 million jobs.  Over the same period, foreign-born workers have gained 3 million. Americans are being replaced as workers in their own country, but you are “racist” if you notice.
In earlier decades, many businesses cut production costs by moving factories out of the U.S. to low wage (in dollar terms) countries. Now, businesses are staying put, while importing foreign workers to replace more expensive Americans. All the while, far too many clueless “Christians” cheer this process on. In their minds, Haitians and other foreign workers are their “neighbors”. These foreigners deserve to come to America and be employed. Meanwhile, native-born Americans are just useless, racist whiners. The fact that all this is nothing but anti-American corporate welfare seems to escape everyone’s attention.

Americans are broke, depressed, frequently unmarried, and so as one might expect, there is a declining number of children being born.

The involuntarily childless couples at my Church are not outliers. They represent where we are as a society right now. Unless we do something drastic, the future is not good. Imagine no souls to save, because none are being born. Imagine trying to preach the Gospel to people who are struggling so much to survive they can’t support the Church, or even afford to drive to services. Imagine a sick, depressed, isolated, declining population hooked on free porn and legal weed to cope with the meaninglessness of existence. Imagine exploding homelessness, food insecurity, suicide, and crime. Is that the society we really want? Is that the society we think we deserve?

Right now, we have to totally change up our thinking as Christians. Encouraging family formation is not just one priority among many. Rather, families are the priority. Families are the entire point of having an economy to begin with. The economy was made to serve man. Man was not made to serve the economy. Businesses claim American’s won’t work for the pay they are willing to provide? Then we need to address that in a way that expands opportunity for Americans, not in a way that imports foreign workers to replace them. Childcare is too expensive? Then we need to find a way for more mothers to stay home while children are young. Even if that means government subsidies. Too many Americans are having fertility issues due to environmental degradation? Then clean up the food supply, get highly processed poisons off super market shelves, and make future parents healthy again.

There is only one question that matters about any economic topic. Simple. Direct. Easy to understand, and the key to everything – is it good for families?

Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America