Business Needs to Pay a Livin' Wage
The vast majority of Americans claim to believe in God and family values. The theory is commendable; however , practice of such beliefs is sadly lackin'. Brings to mind Nietzsche's much misunderstood observation: "God is dead." What he meant was most people go to church and when they leave they behave as though God were dead.
Payin' a livin' wage is the value system of religions. In the words of Christ : "the laborer is worthy of his hire". Everything is a gift from the creator and is meant to be used accordingly so there's no-one in need in the community.
That is how it was in the earliest Christian community described in Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament (2:44,45) King James:followers of Christ sold what they had, gave the wealth to the apostles who shared it among the community so there was no one in need. The manifestation of the definin' principle: love one another. A perfect example of enlightened capitalism: leaders actin' as stewards perceivin' bounty of earth as God given to all the children of the earth and not just a privileged few.
Sean Hannity and Bill O' Reilly are two perfect examples of what Nietzsche was talkin' about when he said " God was dead". Both claim to be church goin' God fearin' men yet are ignorant of this readin' from Acts, which is part of the readin's at Easter time every second year at the church where they belong. In their perversity sharin' the wealth so there's no one in need is godless socialism/communism. Their pathetic ignorance is in reality anti-christ.
Karl Marx, one of the major exponents of socialism/communism was the son of a rabbi, which religious background would explain his comin' up with the idea "from each according to his ability to each according to his need." In natural philosophy that idea would be considered a natural good. No contradiction with religious principle. Ironically that's what folks were doin' in Acts, long before Marx.
The social teachin's pertainin' to the production and distribution of wealth is the same for Christians and communists. That's where the confusion comes in: similarity of ideals and the shared inability to get there for the most part. One crowd believes in God's goodness, grace and mercy and the other gravely denies those beliefs pointin' to gap between belief and practice. Gravity, it seems , is responsible.
When Christians, or anyone believin' in metaphysics, to use Aristotle's word, meta, meanin' beside the physical knowable universe, express their beliefs to say, communists, as well as other folks who believe in a material base to the universe, such discourse is considered on the same level as talkin' about pink elephants, as one wit put it.
Here is the basic perversity of human tribalism: us right them wrong. If communists are for a livin' wage then capitalists are agin it. The absurdity of this of this view is expressed thusly: if communists are 'gainst cancer then we're (capitalists, American in particular,) are for it.
Enter the phylogenetic experience of individual liberation. Phila means tribe, put it together with genesis, our beginin', the phylogenetic experience of individual liberation is meant to capture our journeys where we repeat the experience of the tribe/race individually. Keepin' in mind there's only one race, the human one.
Wisdom of the human journey reveals the aesthetic goal of clean hands free of the blood of innocents. Those subscribin' to the value system of "business needs cheap labor" foolishly have blood on their hands. Most investors are our modern day landlords whose unholy desires for cheap labor, which they nor their families have no desire to be, are corruptin' the whole culture.
Unfortunately most of those who aren't investors want to be and therein lies the crux of the matter. It doesn't matter what system we have in place unless there's a transformation of values: from "business needs cheap labor" to business needs to pay a livin' wage". Which is the idea behind a social contract to keep everybody honest for a healthy culture. Otherwise we'll continue to end up with plutocracies 'cos of the human desire to be rich and powerful. The folk wisdom in the sayin' "don't tax you , don't tax me, tax that fella standin' behind the tree". Weakness of the human condition.
The value system of freedom is that of meritocracy. This is where individual freedom and choice come into play for all of us, since we have to confront the tribalism of totemic authoritarianism in ourselves first and foremost, to which every group and individual is subject regardless of background.
Before one goes around tryin' to overcome the tyranny of others one should overcome the tyrant in oneself. Castenada, thru the character Don Juan, came up with this epiphany: "the cosmos is so constructed as to get rid of the petty tyrant in all of us." This is obviously a metaphysical view of literature based in belief we're on spiritual journeys with common obstacles on the road of life.