Together, specialization and division of labor form the core of Adam Smith's Capitalism. This isn't just when it comes to producing products; it can also apply to services. Recently, a libertarian-leaning friend of mine implied that we wouldn't need police if everyone had a gun and the willingness to take action when wronged.Although that line of thinking is consistent with the recent Libertarian reinterpretation of Capitalism, it is not in line with true Capitalism. In fact, that kind of thought completely discounts the core of Capitalism.
Based on the simple concept of division of labor, a government police force is a great idea.
I don't want to run around punishing people who injure me or take my stuff:
- I don't have time.
- I don't have the skills.
- As the person wronged, I might be able to exact revenge (I’m not a bad shot), but without a neutral party, it is doubtful that real justice would be served.
Adam Smith, the founder of Capitalism, devised a system based strongly on Biblical thought.
He knew that God established Government to do exactly what Capitalism proscribes: to be the party that specializes in punishment of the wicked (Romans 13:4). I can’t personally enact punishment on my own behalf when my job is forgive and, in fact, give them my shirt if they steal my cloak (Luke 6:29). A Modern Christian Libertarian-minded person who prefers Ayn Rand to Adam Smith might point out that the Bible includes community judgment for crimes in the form of villagers stoning a convicted criminal. They might see this as support for citizens taking the punishment of criminals into their own hands.
I think that is a sloppy application of scripture. The parts of the Bible that contain village stonings also prohibit eating bacon. That part of scripture applied to the Jews under the Old Covenant (a time when they lived under a theocracy, and remember, the Old Testament theocracy ended in exile--it wasn't sufficient to save them).
Christ fulfilled the old Law (St. Paul explains this in detail in Galatians) and Jesus himself showed that Law's fatal flaw when he was asked to participate in one of those village executions and instead said “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7).
St. Paul says, the Law of Moses is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). It is not a model of what a government ought to look like. In fact, it resulted in "everyone [doing] what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25). In short, the Law was designed to show that we are not good enough to rule ourselves.
At its heart, libertarianism denies any proper role for government. Like communism, it longs for the gradual withering away of the state. But government is something that God ordained to curb to our sinful natures and prevent us from harming our neighbors. Both libertarianism and communism deny that human nature is inclined toward sin.
God established Government to rein-in the problems with human nature. Adam Smith's Capitalism took the principles of human nature and applied them to society. I am amazed at how smart Adam Smith was. The Wealth of Nations contains a wealth of knowledge and I encourage anyone who is serious about economics to read what Smith actually says. Because of how Capitalism has been hijacked by Libertarian-minded theories, I found it greatly helpful to return to the source and begin rebuilding from there. Libertarianism strips away the moral foundation for capitalism, which recognized the human condition, and reduces capitalism to a social Darwinist economic model. That is not what Adam Smith advocated.
Jeremiah,
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to to think, based on this post, that I'm not the libertarian-leaning friend involved, even though I remember a similar conversation we had a while back. However, since when do police "run around punishing people who take my stuff?"
I say that, BTW, because I did a lot of dodging on the issue of police power ;)
DeleteI think we focused more on the justice system, which is different from the police system, although your post here lumps the two together.
Derringer, if I steal your car, the police with track me down and arrest me. That starts a chain of events that leads to me being punished for taking your car. That is the function of a police force.
DeleteTrue that! But police don't do that, otherwise it is an abuse of police authority and they become no worse than an organized mob. So, if the police deal out justice, we live in a banana republic. Now, the people that actually do decide whether to punish someone for taking your stuff (hopefully, your collection of DVDs and not your collection of sharp, pointy objects) are mostly random people pulled from off the street, and a professional judge, who does the sentencing.
DeleteYes, I am a fan of our criminal justice system as well. :-)
DeleteBut doesn't it fly in the face of specialization of labor? Juries are ignorant, random people pulled from the street, with no training in law, ready to be persuaded by the first lawyer to come along? :D
DeleteI'm a fan of our justice system as well, but it existed well before the establishment of the version of the police force we have today, and conflating the two isn't helpful.
As far as community punishments go, the ones in the Bible were not spontaneous administrations of justice--the accused had due process. Community participation in the event--similar to later public hangings that persisted throughout the United States during the founding era and well into the 1800s and England--serves as a deterrent. Today's jails sometimes serve as an incentive.
In short, reducing justice--and the government itself--to another expression of capitalism is, in my opinion, unwise. Justice is not supposed to be efficient. That's nice, but justice is really supposed to protect the capitalistic system--it's supposed to work. Today's court system is extremely slow and could probably use some streamlining, but sometimes inefficiency is necessary to ensure justice is served.
Specialization is still upheld. Although juries determine guilt and innocents Judges determine what the punishment is and law enforcement officers are the ones who do the investigating and are the ones who carry out the arrests and punishments.
DeleteBut all of that is meaningless if the jury messes up...and the jury is not specialized. It is essentially the people assuming the responsibility to maintain justice, not leave it up to people "who know better."
DeleteI don't think we disagree...
DeleteProlly not :D
DeleteAnd for the record most of us are in practice, if not in principle, big fan of that.
ReplyDeletethe whole juror system was established as a means to prevent corruption, when you have the same group of people as the jury, you're more likely to have back door deals than if you have a random group of people :)
ReplyDeleteTrue that.
DeleteGreat post, Jeremiah.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sir!
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