Practical, Christian Economic Justice
In America, wealth inequality runs rampant. This is not news. In January 2020, Pew Research found that 61% of Americans believe there is too much wealth inequality in the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened this inequality as members of the 1% saw massive profits while the lower and middle classes largely took the brunt of the economic disaster. And, as with most systemic injustices in America, already marginalized people will be disproportionately affected, meaning that black Americans face a worsening economic footing in comparison with white Americans, leading to other inequities as well.
So, the natural questions are then: why does income inequality continue to grow, and what can we do about it?
Asking the question of “Why?” is loaded. The short, simple, and incomplete answer is that capitalism functions on a profit motive. “Successful” companies are the ones who earn the largest profit rather than those that provide the best services. And as CEOs turn over higher and higher profits, they and their shareholders can enjoy lives of increased luxury. As part of this profit-driven calculation, corporations often look to keep costs down by reducing the cost of labor.
This calculation is also not news. In perhaps his most famous lecture, Michael Parenti points out that corporations have been seeking cheap labor for almost 400 years in order to expand their profits and power.
As a Christian, I am personally compelled by the call to love the poor, the sick, the needy, the hungry, the unhoused. Unfortunately, not all employers take Jesus’ words to heart when you tell them that some of their workers are unhoused because they can’t afford rent in company-owned housing. In fact, there’s a deep history of some companies setting up entire towns in order to extract as much wealth from their workers as possible.
How, then, do we actually ensure that minimum wage workers are still able to afford their rent while corporations insist on widening the gap of wealth inequality? The answer is to educate and organize the workers.
One single worker explaining that they can’t afford to live on poor wages will not convince a corporation to correct course. As I’ve learned through organizing for a FairUCNow, 30,000 workers collectively raising the issue won’t entirely move a corporation, although it will force them to make some improvements that help the workers.
During my almost four and a half years at the University of California, I’ve already been a part of two strikes. Convincing workers to go on strike is a lot of work. You have to talk to many coworkers, make them aware of issues that may not affect them, convince them that striking is an effective tactic, help them work past any fears of striking they may have, and ensure that the structure of the strike itself is organized, empowering, and sustainable.
Even then, a strike is not the end-all-be-all of labor organizing. Corporations will, even after a strike, revert back to the same tactics of trying to exploit workers. It is only through these collective efforts that the workers can once again bring the company back into alignment with Scripture. And believe me, Scripture does not speak well about those who abuse economic power:
Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you… Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter (James 5:1, 4–5).
