Why Work?
Document source : faith-at-work.net
people. We should ask of an enterprise, not "will it pay?" but "is it good?"; of a man, not
"what does he make?" but "what is his work worth?"; of goods, not "Can we induce
people to buy them?" but "are they useful things well made?"; of employment, not "how
much a week?" but "will it exercise my faculties to the utmost?" And shareholders in
let us say brewing companies, would astonish the directorate by arising at shareholders'
meeting and demanding to know, not merely where the profits go or what dividends are
to be paid, not even merely whether the workers' wages are sufficient and the conditions
of labor satisfactory, but loudly and with a proper sense of personal responsibility: "What
goes into the beer?"
You will probably ask at once: How is this altered attitude going to make any difference
to the question of employment? Because it sounds as though it would result in not more
employment, but less. I am not an economist, and I can only point to a peculiarity of war
economy that usually goes without notice in economic textbooks, In war, production for
wasteful consumption still goes on: but there is one great difference in the good
produced. None of them is valued for what it will fetch, but only for what it is worth in
itself. The gun and the tank, the airplane and the warship have to be the best of their
kind. A war consumer does not buy shoddy. He does not buy to sell again. He buys the
thing that is good for its purpose, asking nothing of it but that it shall do the job it has to
do. Once again, war forces the consumer into a right attitude to the work. And, whether
by strange coincidence, or whether because of some universal law, as soon as nothing is
demanded of the thing made but its own integral perfection, its own absolute value, the
skill and labor of the worker are fully employed and likewise acquire an absolute value.
This is probably not the kind of answer that you will find in any theory of economics. Bu
the professional economist is not really trained to answer, or even to ask himself
questions about absolute values. The economist is inside the squirrel cage and turning
with it. Any question about absolute values belongs to the sphere, not of economics, but
of religion.
And it is very possible that we cannot deal with economics as all, unless we can see
economy from outside the cage; that we cannot begin to settle the relative values without
considering absolute values. And if so, this may give a very precise and practical
meaning to the words: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all
these things shall be added to you.".... I am persuaded that the reason why the Churches
are in so much difficulty about giving a lead in the economic sphere is because they are
trying to fit a Christian standard of economic to a wholly false and pagan understanding
of work.
What is the Christian understanding of work? .... I should like to put before you two or
three propositions arising out of the doctrinal position which I stated at the beginning:
Summary :
And, whether by strange coincidence, or whether because of some universal law, as soon as nothing is demanded of the thing made but its own integral perfection, its own absolute value, the skill and labor of the worker are fully employed and likewise acquire an absolute value. Bu the professional economist is not really trained to answer, or even to ask himself questions about absolute values. Any question about absolute values belongs to the sphere, not of economics, but of religion. that we cannot begin to settle the relative values without considering absolute values.
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absolute,war,alues,work,does,goes,whether,any,economist,because,economic,employment,economics
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