Notes from an Econ Major – Part 1 First Things
Great thinkers past and present often narrate a state of nature in their writings to elucidate the purposes of both inanimate and animate things. A state of nature serves the purpose of examining what reality was like before a certain thing was created or introduced. We examine what deficiencies, obstacles, or questions confronted the state of nature and predated the thing in question. If something is new to a state of nature, we assume it was created or introduced to solve or counter an issue or question. While there are many cases where inanimate objects were created by chance or accident such as the microwave oven, penicillin, dynamite, etc., many of these inventions and innovations retain a use-value that bestows on them a purpose and meaning to encourage their perpetuation after their discovery. These uses may not only be material, but may also be religious, political, or sentimental.
However, a state of nature supposes nature itself exists already. This entails a subtle assumption of considering a state of nature as the origin point of ascertaining the original purpose of things. Although, as Christians, we believe nature itself to have been created by God. Our origin point in examining the purpose of things is God himself, before nature existed. At such an origin, it is not feasible to postulate that God created nature because of an obstacle, deficiency, or question as a material state of nature inevitably encounters. Since God requires nothing, for He is the summit of all things, there is no utilitarian motive to his creation. This does not, however, completely disqualify our somewhat utilitarian understanding when it comes to things which are solely of human creation and invention. Yet, such things come after a state of nature, a state created by God whose motives must be understood likewise differently.
Because God cannot have a utilitarian motive because he has no need, the only other motive Christian scholars have ascertained is love. There is no transactional basis for creation, no pre-condition of self-interest on the part of God. This underpins the Christian consideration of creation as a gift of life. Viewing, then, the original creation of the elements, physical nature, animals, and humanity as a gift subsequently endows them an integrity beyond a simple use-value. Whereas human invention carries an element of scarcity, for things such as boats, paper, dynamite, and penicillin require resources to be allocated and worked in order to be procured, original creation does not. The natural laws of physical reality and biological systems do not have diminishing returns to scale or a depreciative character. While there is a natural balance that checks animals, humans, and the elements alike, this is not the same as a market equilibrium which attempts to efficiently allocate scarce goods. The latter requires a marketplace where human society is a precondition, the former merely requires a First Mover. Markets collapse when the goods they allocate are no longer demanded. Natural systems created by God self-sustain themselves in perpetuity.
As an economics major, it is the case that both labor and land are treated as commodities in all instructional models. They are things utilized to be bought and sold at a price. While I do not regard these models as unrealistic or immoral, I do think that rendering land and labor on mathematical terms in all cases within the field (at least at Columbia) prevents students from thinking about these things as perhaps containing philosophical, moral, and theological value and integrity. If the origin of land, physical nature, and human life is found at the command of the Creator, then they were not created or conceived with solely use-value in mind. They must carry another inherent value. In subsequent articles in this series, I hope to examine these values more deeply.
Gustavo Alcantar is a junior in Columbia College majoring in Economics with a concentration in History. As someone who loves to cook, he is always ready to share and make his family recipes or help others prepare theirs. You can usually find him waiting in line Sunday mornings for an Absolute Bagel and coffee, or most weekday afternoons in Avery Library. Gustavo is an active member of Columbia Catholic Ministry, Model UN, and the Columbia Undergraduate Law Review.