{"id":398,"date":"2014-01-31T07:28:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T07:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=398"},"modified":"2014-08-12T23:05:42","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T23:05:42","slug":"truth-or-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/truth-or-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Truth or Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you tuned in to watch President Obama deliver the State of the Union address this past Tuesday evening. \u00a0During his speech the middle class was held up as the class for those in poverty to aspire toward and encouragement was sounded forth for employers to raise the minimum wage. The measure of success is a strong work ethic, access to good jobs and pursuing your dreams.[1]<\/a> \u00a0Our President asserted, as many have before, \u201cWe know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an edge America cannot surrender.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 I wonder what Karl Polanyi would have said if he had heard this speech?<\/p>\n

Polanyi\u2019s book, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time,<\/em> gave me a jolt.\u00a0 The Great Transformation <\/em>is a step back into time, a magnifying glass on the present, and just possibly provides a binocular to peer into the future.\u00a0 There are several areas that have caught my attention as I read.\u00a0 The first is that small actions, even ones perceived as unimportant, yet necessary can have far reaching implications and unforeseen results.\u00a0 Even before the Industrial Revolution a change took place in England, which would ultimately result in unforeseen consequences.\u00a0 Enclosures were erected changing arable lands into pasturelands for the keeping of sheep and the manufacture of wool.\u00a0 Cottage industries developed, people who had been forced out of supportive livelihood in the conversion of land found employment, and craftsmen were needed.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Polanyi\u2019s point, \u201cOnly in a market economy can such compensating effects be taken for granted.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Remembering our tendency to determine an underclass[5]<\/a> it is no surprise that enclosures brought about improvement for the rich and mere habitation for the poor.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 As Polanyi often noted in his book there is a measure and then there is a counter-measure.\u00a0 There is change and there is movement to protect people from change.\u00a0 Not all change or even intended change was wrong nor was it always good.<\/p>\n

Using the enclosures as an example, Polanyi offered this for consideration.\u00a0 \u201cA belief in spontaneous progress must make us blind to the role of government in economic life.\u00a0 This role consists often in altering the rate of change, speeding it up or slowing it down as the case may be.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Polanyi asserted that if it is thought that the rate of change cannot be changed or should not be interfered with then \u201cno room is left for intervention.\u201d[8]<\/a>\u00a0 The rate and pace of change and the adjustments necessary bring stabilization, helping it to become \u201csocially bearable.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 The revealing factor of improvement resulting from the enclosure period was magnified during the Industrial Revolution creating social dislocation.\u00a0 From a historical perspective, a new creed resulted that \u201cwas utterly materialistic and believed that all human problems could be resolved given an unlimited amount of material commodities.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

Secondly, our economic exchanges were initially out of need, whether for services or product.\u00a0 Much of our economy is now driven by \u201cwant\u201d which after several (or many) hands supplies basic need for the providers of our wants. \u00a0Commodities came to be centered on three principle areas:\u00a0 labor, land and money, each one were safe guarded as elements of industry that were \u201con sale.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 It seems much remains the same.\u00a0 The President\u2019s State of the Union expounded on the virtues of American jobs.\u00a0 In my home state the Machinist Union agreed to significant changes in their retirement plans so that the Boeing 777X would be built in Washington State and not in non-union South Carolina. This weekend\u2019s Super Bowl is a prime example of all three elements just ask any NFL player and many a fan all under the guise of entertainment.<\/p>\n

We tend to be focused on economic developments and trends.\u00a0 We rely on the stock market to provide and insure our retirement.\u00a0 Yet what the economy reveals is that our economic problem is in fact a social one.\u00a0 There is movement and then there is countermovement. The Speenhamland Act in 1795 and its counter reaction, the Poor Law Reform in 1834 wrecked havoc on English society.[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Polanyi was critical (or was he just calling it like it really was?) A free market advantages some and brings social destruction for others.\u00a0 \u201cDespair was to prove an even more powerful agent of transformation.\u201d[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Does that mean something for our time?\u00a0 Polanyi recognized the existence of opposite perspectives and practices in a political economy. On one hand there is progress and perfectibility through harmony and self-regulation and on the other determinism and damnation fostered by competition and conflict.[14]<\/a> Opposites that we surely must learn to work and hold in tension.<\/p>\n

The intent of a market economy, freedom, seems to remain illusive.\u00a0 When improvement and prosperity are the aim how does that shape our definition of freedom?\u00a0 How do we get underneath the apparent reasons for market fluctuations to see what is interrelated?\u00a0 We seem determined to raise the standard of living and yet we have finite resources to draw from or to exchange. \u00a0Can the Church provide demonstrable witness that the teachings of Jesus are applicable to a complex society?[15]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1] References in the paragraph are from the State of the Union address as published by the Washington Post.\u00a0 Accessed 1\/30\/14. http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/full-text-of-obamas-2014-state-of-the-union-address\/2014\/01\/28\/e0c93358-887f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2] Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

[3] Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time <\/em>(Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2001), 36.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [4] Ibid.\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [5] Reference here is to my blog post from January 26, 2014 from reading Zygmunt Bauman\u2019s Collateral Damage<\/em> (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2011).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

[6] Polanyi, 36-37.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [7] Ibid., 39.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

[8] Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

[9] Ibid., 39-40.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

[10] Ibid., 42.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

[11] Ibid., 78. \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [12] Ibid., 82. Responding to a time of great distress the Speenlandham law was enacted which would guarantee a minimum earning regardless of their wage.\u00a0 The Poor Law Reform in 1834 ended the \u201cright to live\u201d clause of Speenlandham.\u00a0 People were ill equipped to provide for themselves.\u00a0 Polanyi referred to it as a \u201cruthless act of social reform.\u201d 86.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

[13] Ibid., 88.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

[14] Ibid., 89.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [15] Ibid., 268.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you tuned in to watch President Obama deliver the State of the Union address this past Tuesday evening. \u00a0During his speech the middle class was held up as the class for those in poverty to aspire toward and encouragement was sounded forth for employers to raise the minimum wage. The measure of success is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"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":[4],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-polanyi","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398","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\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1723,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions\/1723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}