An interesting twist

The Acton Institute published an excerpt of a monograph by Corinne and Robert Sauer which caught my attention this morning. It is titled "Judaism, Markets, and Capitalism: Separating Myths from Reality." The monograph suggests there are five foundations of what they call Jewish economic theory. I am not Jewish but am interested in markets. The Sauers are professors and founded the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, which is a non-profit ecomonic think tank.

Their five principles are -

1. Work, creative activity, and innovation are the avenues through which the divine image is expressed.
2. Private property rights are essential and must be protected.
3. The accumulation of wealth is a virtue not a vice.
4. Man has an obligation to care for the needy through charitable giving.
5. Government is inefficient and concentrated power is dangerous.

What interested me about the principles - which I believe are a key part of the fabric that writers like Waldemar Neilsen covered in broader works about the nature of the non-profit sector or of other writers who examined why the west developed in the way that it did - is their inter-connectedness. Private property rights are key to the accumulation of wealth. Wealth is related in part to the ability to hold it (private property). But, as Smith reminded us, wealth is not an avenue in itself but rather should be seen as a two edged sword - with both the opportunity and the obligation. Finally, the relationship of charitable giving and the inability of government to accomplish many public functions is also tied together.

The original article can be found at The Acton Institute. Ultimately the five principles influence not only Jewish thought but the broader ranges of Judeo-Christian thought. Obviously, in one strain of Christian thinking the accumulation of wealth was seen in negative terms. But the article articulated some principles that I believe should have much broader application.

Finally, if you look at some of the documents that many economists call their founding ones (Smith, Hume, Bastiat, etc.) the linkage of these five principles pervades a lot of that work. Too bad that many foundational courses in economics do not start from these ideas.