{"id":31464,"date":"2023-03-01T15:48:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T23:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=31464"},"modified":"2023-03-01T15:48:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T23:48:50","slug":"how-big-is-your-slice-of-the-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-big-is-your-slice-of-the-pie\/","title":{"rendered":"How Big Is Your Slice of the Pie?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My husband majored in Business Economics in college and later went on to earn his Master of Business Administration. He loves learning about the concepts in economics and we have talked about these concepts our entire marriage. I understand some of it, but most of it goes over my head and is not exactly one of my favorite subjects. So naturally, I went to him to discuss Karl Polanyi\u2019s book The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time<\/em>. He read this book (or rather the Cliff Notes) in college. When my business savvy husband tells me this book is \u201cthick\u201d what hope do I have of understanding the concepts? Thankfully, my husband is a great teacher and knows how to explain things in a way anyone can understand. Our conversation centered around the differences between free market economies and regulated economies.<\/p>\n

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In order to better understand how a free market economy verses a regulated economy works, let me ask you a question. Would you rather have two slices of a 5-inch pie or one slice of a ten-inch pie? Why? Which one gets you more pie? Two is greater than one, right? Well in this instance it is not. Two 5-inch pies get you 39.27 square inches. If you divide that into eight pieces per pie, two slices equal 4.91 square inches. One ten-inch pie gets you 78.54 square inches. This gives you a slice that is 9.82 square inches, double the amount of pie.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What does all this have to do with economics or Karl Polyani? My husband told me that a free market economy is better at enlarging the pie while a regulated economy is better at slicing the pie. The free market economy takes advantage of the fundamental motivations of greed. It says, if you work harder and are more productive you will make more money. This aligns well with the Protestant Work Ethic. In contrast, in a heavily regulated economy, there is less reward for hard work or invention.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

In his dissertation, Dr. Jason Clark comments, \u201cThe market is, if not a false body<\/em>, then at least a competing body, to which humans have ceded all sociologic, because of its promise of actualizing community desire; however, it has never produced a community, but rather fostered an idealization and unrequited desire for community.\u201d [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Is a free market economy ideal? We have a desire for community, but does it help to create that community? My daughter, along with many of her generation, would tell you hands down that it is not. She would advocate for the notion of a benevolent dictator. She is disillusioned with the gap between poverty and wealth in the world. Who can blame her? While Utopia is a nice idea, it is not something we will see this side of heaven. Our fallen nature means that there will always be someone looking to take advantage of any situation. The free market economy has led to great riches, but also great poverty. The pie may be bigger, but not everyone has an equal slice.<\/p>\n

In Chapter Nine, Polanyi discusses Pauperism and Utopia. He writes about the economy in the wake of the Seven Years War:<\/p>\n

In actual fact, prosperity was just around the corner, a prosperity of gigantic proportions which was destined to become a new form of life not only for one nation but for the whole of mankind. But neither statesmen nor economists had the slightest intimation of its oncoming. As for the statemen, this may have been a matter of indifference, as for another two generations the rocketing trade figures only dented the edge of popular misery. But in the case of the economists, it was singularly unfortunate as their whole theoretical system was erected during this spate of \u201cabnormalcy,\u201d when a tremendous ride in trade and production happened to be accompanied by an enormous increase in human misery.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Pauperism was a result of a free market economy. Polanyi goes on to say, \u201cPauperism had become a portent. But its meaning was still anybody\u2019s guess.\u201d [5]<\/a> We can see the continually growing gap between pauperism and wealth and the degree to which race plays part. The poverty gap shows most clearly along racial lines.<\/p>\n

Polanyi discusses regulation of the market in chapter twenty-one. \u201cA free supply of land, labor, and money continued to be available; consequently no self-regulating market system was in existence. As long as these conditions prevailed, neither man, nor nature, nor business organization needed protection of the kind that only intervention can provide.\u201d[6]<\/a> These conditions prevailed because of the oppression of others. Regulation aids with halting that oppression, but we cannot go back to a place before that oppression and the consequences have created an inequal society.<\/p>\n

In an ideal world, poverty would not exist. Racism would not exist. We would all live in peace and harmony. Sounds like heaven to me and I look forward to getting there.<\/p>\n

‘Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. ‘”\u00a0Revelation 22:1-5(ESV)<\/p>\n

\n

\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.omnicalculator.com\/food\/pizza-comparison<\/a><\/p>\n

I used this website for my calculations.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Andrew Hald, interviewed by author, San Francisco, March 1, 2023.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Jason Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (2018). Faculty Publications \u2013 Portland Seminary, 164-165.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time<\/em>. (Boston, Beacon Press, 1944), Pg. 109.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., Pg. 115.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., Pg. 211.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband majored in Business Economics in college and later went on to earn his Master of Business Administration. He loves learning about the concepts in economics and we have talked about these concepts our entire marriage. I understand some of it, but most of it goes over my head and is not exactly one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2217,2233],"class_list":["post-31464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jason-clark","tag-karl-polanyi","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31467,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31464\/revisions\/31467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}