Since I consistently thrust myself into the bad books with my economics posts, I thought I might as well do so with vigor. So here is the first entry of a new blog series, Blogging Through Medaille (HT to Davey for these articles). My thoughts will not be academically sound or intellectually rigorous. Just my thoughts, which Davey seems to value, therefore so should you.
Life in Circle Six
A post on usury that begins by comparing usury to the commercialization of art. Huh. But I like it. Dare I say that Medaille has won me over?
We no longer think it unusual that art is subverted to commercial and political propaganda, while much “serious†art defends itself by becoming unintelligible.
Moving on to our topic, I don’t really disagree with Medaille at all here. Usury has long had a bad name (I’m thinking of Merchant of Venice here), and he makes a fantastic point about how the boom of credit cards and financing has actually led to a decline of serious investing. (To invest no longer means to invest in a person, but rather in a conservative mutual fund, which is just about as abstract as it gets.)
The only sticky spot for me is towards the end, when Medaille starts talking about unions. But to be fair, my dislike of unions is really a dislike of bureaucratic unions—those for the garbage collectors, postal employees, and school teachers up here in Canada think nothing of going on strike and inconveniencing thousands of people. I’ve seen it happen several times, and in each case they’re actually hurting the innocent instead of the “oppressors.”
A separate thought: can I justly claim that the key to economics is serving? I like this better than jumping straight into Augustine, as good as he is. For one, it’s much more concrete: it brings up specific mental pictures and specific memories. Moreover, Augustine can nicely fill out what it means to serve, while the vice versa doesn’t work quite so cleanly. (By the time you get to the concrete “serving” part, you’re either lost or asleep.)
Just a thought.
Loved this first installment!
And yes, I agree that service/sharing is essential to our definition of a just economy. And I think, if you were so inclined, you could enlist Augustine’s theology of desire and love in support of that thesis.