IS OUR FREE ENTERPRIZE ECONOMY DESTROYING THE FAMILY?

January 2, 2009

Last Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The occasion invites us to consider what we can do to strengthen families, so that the love and peace of Christ may reign in them. I will dedicate this column and next week’s to examining the impact of our capitalist economic system on the family, and about what we can do to strengthen family.

Materially, our nation is prospering. We eat healthier food, live in bigger houses, enjoy better health and receive better medical care, and live longer than ever before. We enjoy a cornucopia of material goods and entertainments. As individuals, we enjoy unprecedented opportunity, mobility, and independence. We are, indeed, among the wealthiest, most richly blessed nations that have ever existed.

What about the personal and social dimensions of our way of life? In particular, what has become of the family? The 20th century witnessed an unprecedented number of broken families. Some fear the traditional family is disappearing. There has been a steady increase in divorce, dropping birth rates within marriage, greatly increased promiscuity, cohabitation, and avoidance of children through contraception or abortion.

Consider the connection between our economy and a breakdown in family life and stability.  For most of human history agriculture was the base of economic life. Each family was an economic unit, so that the stronger the family, the more stable the economy. These economic units of production and consumption were bonded together by love. Self-fulfillment was found not in individual gain, but in selfless sharing, which came naturally and enriched everyone. Closer bonds and increased love were their own rewards.

The industrial revolution, propelled forward by the new capitalist theory of economic organization, broke up these family-based economic units, and distributed their individual members to factories. The new capitalist economy produced greater wealth for the individuals who participated in it, but made families obstacles rather than aids to economic efficiency.

In time, all household tasks were absorbed into the industrial model of production. For example, food preparation, the care of children and the elderly, cleaning, car repair and maintenance, and other tasks once done by families were now transferred to external entities, such as restaurants and fast food chains, day care centers and retirement homes, car shops and other service agencies.

Employers welcomed women into the workforce not only for the contributions they could make, but also in many instances to help keep wages down. A morally inspired effort to restore family stability at the dawn of the 20th century led to the notion of a "family wage". The man's salary, it was asserted, needed to provide not only for him, but also for his family. This effort led to limited success, because it worked against the logic of the economy, which was all about efficiency and maximization of profits.

Another subtle impact of the new organization of labor was to reduce family size. In part, this was because the government-established systems of public schools separated children from parents at an early age, thereby weakening the bonds between them. In part, it was because of the psychological shift of perception that takes place once the logic of the capitalist economy has set in. Children, who once were seen as contributors to family economic well-being, were now seen as an economic deficit. Our economy, in fact, subtly encourages all of us to ask the raw, utilitarian question with regard to every relationship: "How useful are you to me? How can you help me maximize my self interest?"

This economy has encouraged us to see each other as competitors instead of allies with whom we can cooperate toward the common good. My gain seems to be your loss. The emphasis on the freedom of the individual in his or her pursuit of happiness has encouraged us to seek government-sponsored solutions to human problems that were once addressed within families, such as welfare for the indigent, and pension plans for the elderly.

By the dawn of the 21st century, the family has been so weakened that many today seem to view it as unnecessary to human happiness, which seems often to be defined solely in terms of personal freedom from all commitments and ties that bind, including family ties, to pursue individual self-expression, aggrandizement, and satisfaction of appetite.

Loyalty, commitment, and self-sacrifice for motives of love are virtues first learned in the family. When the family breaks down, so does the cultivation of virtue, and so, in turn, does social solidarity.

A strong economy cannot guarantee our future. Our nation will never be stronger than our families are. We must admit that our families are in deep trouble, and that our capitalist economy has unintentionally done much to weaken them. We must make family stability and security a top national priority, and reshape our economy to make it a family-centered one. This is no small task, but no lesser measures will suffice.

The Catholic Church proposes no technical solutions to these problems, but next week I will recall some of the Church’s social teachings which can make a positive contribution to our Valley’s and nation's consideration of this issue.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 09-Jun-2010 10:44 sitemap