Since the days of Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party has become a home for the most vocal champions of capitalism. Throughout the years, they often opposed government encroachments on what they thought should be left to free markets.
That all changed in 2016, when then-candidate Donald Trump praised Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as worthwhile public benefits and promised that tariffs would be the signature element of his economic agenda to balance America’s trade deficit.
The Republican Party’s break from its traditional economic orthodoxy is indicative of what economist Oren Cass calls “the return of political economy” and owning the reality that “politics and economics are inseparably intertwined.”1
Many conservative Christians in recent years have also lamented the increased politicization of their own workplaces. Common now are the mandatory and repetitive DEI trainings and a cascade of rainbows which flood office spaces every June. The rise of “woke capitalism” has left many wondering what to do and feeling stuck in the process.
The overwhelming powerlessness that workers feel—believers and unbelievers alike—is what Sohrab Ahmari describes in his new book, Tyranny Inc. For too long, Ahmari says, free market absolutists have naively believed that coercion is not possible in markets where free individuals of equal bartering power compete against one another and arrive at fair and mutually agreed upon terms. Coercion is something governments, do not markets. According to Ahmari, the reality is far more complex.
What conservatives forgot in the latter half of the twentieth century, he argues, is “that private actors can imperil freedom just as much as overweening governments; that unchallenged market power can impair our own rights and liberties; that there are finally such things as private tyrannies and private tyrants” (xxii).
Ahmari documents real life examples of these private tyrannies but steer clears of Culture War issues like #Pride or the gender pay gap. These are the flashing lights which distract us from more mundane but no less sinister methods of coercion, he argues. Crusades against unionization, mandatory private arbitration, corporate erosion as a substitute investment strategy: all of these, Ahmari says, are instances of Big Business wielding imbalanced power over their workers and coercing them into a life they would never choose for themselves.
For Ahmari, twin realities make up the root of the problem. The first is the myth of equally empowered agents on both sides of the labor exchange. Asset-less employees with roots in a community, families to feed, and debts to pay do not always have the flexibility or resources to simply pack up their offices and move on whenever their asset-rich boss suddenly renegotiates the terms of their employment.
The second reality is the different incentives for employees and employers. The latter are largely driven by profit—the faster the better, regardless of how disruptive to actual lives it may be. The former, however, are mostly looking for stability and dignified work they can depend on. In the past, Ahamri notes, these opposing incentives were balanced against each other by what the economist John Kenneth Galbraith called “countervailing power” (153). The economic power of owners was checked by the countervailing power of organized labor and other New Deal programs (155).
The result, claims Ahmari, was a slow but steady growth in prosperity across socio-economic classes. The rich were not as rich, but more people came to enjoy the modest comforts of middle-class life. Company growth took time as capital was not always used in the most efficient ways, but the underlying stability was a great boon to employee and employer alike. Contrast that to today’s economy, Ahmari says, which mirrors something more like a Blackjack table. The highs are high but the lows can be very low indeed.
So what to do? In the last chapter, Ahmari asserts the defense of politics in the economic order. The reason is simple: “coercion is inevitable in human affairs, not least the significant portions of our lives we spend as workers and consumers” (178). It is a theological point as much as a political one. Human nature being what it is, we can expect men to act selfishly in whatever they do. No idealistic system, whether it be Communist or laissez-faire, can eliminate human depravity. The latter no doubt takes human nature more seriously, but we fool ourselves if we think the system itself is enough to check our sin completely.
Economic activity must have a telos. For Christians, we know that end to be the glory of God, serving him faithfully by obedience to his commands and love for our neighbors. Profit is simply too low of a goal and fosters greed. According to Ahmari, the reassertion of political economy may just bring the private tyrannies to heel while employee and employer work together for the common good.
Economists and pundits more sympathetic to free enterprise have already responded to many of Ahmari’s arguments, and they are worth considering.2 Since that is beyond the scope of my expertise, I would encourage curious readers to do their own research. However, seeing as most Christians involve themselves in the market daily and hope to bring their faith to bear in that arena, we may properly ask what implications Ahmari’s insights have for believers.
Applications for Christians
Certainly, there is much in Ahmari’s book which Christians can sympathize with. We understand better than anyone that sinful man has no qualms with extorting others for selfish gain. That private actors can be as guilty as public ones is no surprise. In fact, the Bible attests to the possibility of private coercion.
Conservative Christians will sometimes quote 2 Thessalonians 3:10 in their support of free markets: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” But the axiom implies obligations on the employer just as much as the laborer. If a man does the work, he ought to receive the compensation necessary for purchasing his food.
The testimony of James 5:4 suggests the temptation to coerce others to accept less than what they’re owed exists alongside laziness and is equally dishonoring to God: “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”
Still, conservative Christians rarely look beyond spiritual revival as the solution for the real manifestations of economic malfeasance today. Workplaces would become less oppressive, they argue, if only the church did a better job at morally forming managers (143). Certainly, morally formed managers are ideal and worthy of our time, but limiting ourselves to that option alone ignores the civil and pedagogical uses of the law. Could prudential means for giving laborers countervailing power, codified into law, benefit citizens regardless of their religious identity while training them in Christian principles of justice? Maybe, maybe not. Not all Christians will agree which policies are the best, who ought to administer them, or how, but that should not preclude them from contributing to the debate.
Finally, Christians should recognize the ultimate purpose of economic activity. Indeed, Protestants have a long tradition of supporting political solutions to economic problems for the sake of the common good. Take the sixteenth century Reformer, Martin Bucer, for example, who even preferred local, centralized social safety nets as a solution to poverty over private charity. As Brad Littlejohn notes, economic problems like vast income inequality and poverty were concerning for Bucer “because he held the flourishing of human life, not the pursuit of private profit, to be the ultimate purpose of an economy.”3
It isn’t the case that adopting all of Bucer’s proposals will suddenly fix our economy. The same goes for Ahmari’s suggestions. But a realistic vision for the twenty-first century American economy requires that we understand our own context. Technology has advanced significantly. There are new domestic and geo-political challenges. But unique circumstances do not negate enduring principles. Fidelity to God’s ways while retrieving other Protestant thinkers on these matters can certainly help Christians as they seek solutions to our nation’s own economic problems.
Oren Cass, “The Return of Political Economy,” American Compass, January 10, 2022, https://americancompass.org/2021-founders-letter/.
For Christians, a good place to begin would be Samuel Goldman’s review. See Samuel Goldman, “Tyranny, Inc. and the Future of American Labor,” Acton Institute, August 15, 2023, https://rlo.acton.org/archives/124783-tyranny-inc-and-the-future-of-american-labor.html.
Brad Littlejohn, “Against the Infinite Stimulus of Greed: Martin Bucer’s Reformation of Welfare,” Davenant Institute, https://davenantinstitute.org/against-the-infinite-stimulus-of-greed.
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