How Should a Christian View Socialism?
Most philosophers throughout history have believed that history is shaped by ideas and human reason. However, there is one famous philosopher who argued that economics is the main driving force behind all of human history. Karl Marx, born to German Jewish parents in 1818 and earning his doctorate at age 23, set out to prove that human identity is linked to a person’s work and that economic systems completely control individuals. Marx believed that mankind survives through labor, and he argued that human communities are formed by the division of labor.
Marx studied history and concluded that for hundreds of years, people had been more focused on agriculture, and society had been based on agrarianism. However, in Marx’s view, the Industrial Revolution was a gamechanger because those who had traditionally worked for themselves were now compelled by economic forces to work in factories. Marx believed this process stripped away their dignity and identity, as their labor defined who they were, reducing them to nothing more than slaves under the control of a powerful taskmaster. This perspective led Marx to see the economics of capitalism as his natural enemy.
Marx surmised that capitalism emphasized private property and, therefore, reduced ownership to the privileged few. Two separate “communities” emerged in Marx’s mind: the business owners, or the bourgeoisie, and the working class, or the proletariat. According to Marx, the bourgeoisie uses and exploits the proletariat, resulting in one person’s gain and another person’s loss. Moreover, Marx believed that business owners influence lawmakers to ensure their interests are protected at the expense of workers’ loss of dignity and rights. Lastly, Marx felt that religion is the “opiate of the masses,” which the rich use to manipulate the working class; the proletariat are promised rewards in heaven one day if they work diligently where God has placed them (i.e., subservient to the bourgeoisie).
In the earthly utopia Marx envisioned, people collectively own everything and work together for the common good of mankind. Marx aimed to eliminate private property ownership through the state’s control of all means of economic production. Once private property was abolished, Marx believed that a person’s identity would be strengthened and the barrier capitalism supposedly built between owners and the working class would be broken down. Everyone would value each other and collaborate for a shared purpose.
However, there are at least four errors in Marx’s Thinking.
First, his claim that one person’s gain must come at another’s expense is a myth; the structure of capitalism allows many to improve their living standards through innovation and competition. It is entirely possible for multiple parties to compete and succeed in a market where consumers seek their goods and services.
Second, Marx was incorrect in his belief that the value of a product depends on the amount of labor invested in it. The quality of a good or service simply cannot be judged solely by the effort a worker puts in. For example, a master carpenter can make a piece of furniture more quickly and beautifully than an unskilled craftsman, and therefore his work will be valued more highly (and justly so) in an economic system like capitalism. As Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Third, Marx’s theory requires a government free from corruption and rejects the idea of elitism within its ranks. If history has shown anything, it is that power corrupts fallen mankind, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. A nation or government might diminish the idea of God, but someone will take God’s place. That someone is often an individual or group who begins to rule over the population and tries to keep their privileged position at all costs. Basic human nature is the core problem with all fundamental economic theories. The prophet Jeremiah summed it up well: “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” No race, creed, color, class, bourgeois, laborer, academic, government, nation, or philosopher is free from basic selfishness.
Fourth, and equally important, Marx was mistaken in believing that a person’s identity is defined by their work. While secular society often imposes this belief on nearly everyone, the Bible states that all have equal worth because they are created in the image of the eternal God. That is where true, inherent human value resides.
Was Marx right? Is economics the catalyst that drives human history? No, what directs human history is the Creator of the universe, who controls everything, including the rise and fall of every nation. Additionally, God also controls who is put in charge of each nation, as Scripture states, “The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men” (Daniel 4:17).
Furthermore, it is God who grants a person skill in labor and the wealth resulting from it, not the government: “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:18–19).
That’s Something to Think About!
Dr. Robert Bryant