THE FORGOTTEN PRIORITY OF LABOR OVER CAPITAL

By Franz Segbers

[This commentary on the 2008 memorandum of the Evangelical Church in Germany “Entrepreneurial Conduct in Evangelical Perspective” is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/wp-print.php?p=3340.]




Even the German manager magazine had to admit: “The picture of the manager caste is disastrous.” More mistrust than ever appears. While the economic upswing passes by workers, the soaring business profits give shareholders tremendous increases of more than twenty percent compared to the previous year. The thirty corporations from DAX (German stock exchange) will pour out 28 billion in dividends in 2008. Who will benefit? The recent EKD memorandum “Entrepreneurial Conduct in Evangelical Perspective” does not answer this question. In its memorandum against discredited financial managers, the Evangelical Church in Germany emphasizes the responsibility of the family entrepreneur who introduces new procedures and markets innovative products. However in the new dominant capitalism, businesses become capital investments of shareholders whose short-term interests must be served by managers. Appealing to the responsible merchants whose business decisions are guided by Christian values and who therefore should sharpen their “moral vigilance” sounds almost nostalgic.

` In the 138 paragraphs of the memorandum, responsibility is invoked 104 times. Politics is responsible for a social market economy, for the rules and structures of a human economy. Responsible individual conduct then has a secondary significance. That is what Muller-Armack meant when he defined the social market economy as a “socially guided market economy.” Politics is necessary for conscious control. The memorandum rightly supports a social market economy from its Christian roots. But when the state is reduced to only setting the framework for competition and then appeals to the responsibility of individual entrepreneurs, one falls at once in a neoliberal trap. The responsibility of the entrepreneur cannot replace the deregulated political responsibility.

Counteracting forces must help the undisputed “responsibility of the merchant” along. It must move within the rule that the state sets and uses for human social policy. However this is not emphasized in the memorandum. It insists on the triad “ethical consciousness, clear orientation and commands and spiritual naturalization. It completes the withdrawal of the state from the “conscious social control of the market economy.” (Muller-Armack)

In a theologically correct way, the “option for the poor” is stressed and biblical role models are sought. However the third poverty- and wealth report of the German government shows how far the concrete market economy deviates from the beautiful models. This can be seen in every charitable food bank. As in a textbook, the memorandum writes against this reality. “In a framework that assures both sharp competition and social equalization, this striving for personal well-being can lead to everyone’s prosperity.” Are there no problems? The contradiction between the sublime model and the reality of “predatory capitalism” (Helmut Schmidt) cannot surprise. The social market economy serves as a mantra to cover up the real relative strengths of the minority of owners of capital and the majority of dependent employees. Admonishing that “a special responsibility” comes to entrepreneurs is not enough in view of the imbalanced relative strength of employees. A law limiting power is crucial. That is the meaning of the social-ethical formula “Priority of labor over capital.” A few years ago the chairperson of the EKD Wolfgang Huber urged this. Now this is not heard any more.

No wonder the German weekly economic journal “Wirtschaftswoche” rejoices “The EKD’s Turn – Peace with Capital” and the Frankfurt daily newspaper (FAZ) agrees effusively “The Grasshopper as Praying Mantis.” When the memorandum gives the guiding ethical perspective: “an economy with everyone and for everyone,” something else could be envisioned: the democratic appropriation of capitalism and the redevelopment of economic joint-determination. Then the praise of the economy will be appropriate!

[Cf: Publik-Forum 14/2008]