POVERTY
OF FREEDOM OR FREEDOM FROM POVERTY
ES 341E-01 and REL 324E-01
DONALD W. MUSSER, RELIGIOUS
STUDIES
RANJINI L. THAVER, ECONOMICS
Tuesday and Thursday,
Capital is the force that
raises the productivity of labor and creates the wealth of nations. It is the lifeblood of a capitalist
system...most of the poor already have the assets they
need to make a success of capitalism. -- Hernando De Soto
Indeed
the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
--
Alfred Marshall
Our
dream is a world free of poverty.
--
World Bank
Group 2000
A
slack hand causes poverty,
But
the hand of the diligent makes rich.
--
Proverbs 10:4
The rich and poor meet
together;
The Lord is maker of them
all.
-- Proverbs 22:2
We should not wish that the
poor and the unhappy exist for us to perform
acts of charity. You give bread to the poor,
but it would be better that
nobody hungered for it
and that no was needed to give
it.
--
The response to God's gift
is blessed by God,
and with that blessing comes
also the obligation
'not
to hinder others from having their own part in God's gift.'
-- Richard John Neuhaus,
quoting from
Centesimus Annus
COURSE OVERVIEW
The world is divided into various cultures, nations, and classes. The world also is divided between the wealthy and the poor. At one extreme are those who spend some of their money and wealth to keep their weight down, to stay fit, to measure and fight cholesterol, and to become more "cultured." They ruminate over the teenage crisis, the challenges of adulthood, and the promise of the "golden years." They debate the environment, education, trade, politics, and the future of the world. They successfully appeal to private and government resources in the name of ‘rights’ for themselves and their families. At the opposite extreme are those who do not know from where their next meal will come. They do not concern themselves about rock concerts, diabetes, and retirement at one orf Del Webb's "sun cities" for they will most likely die young. They will neither debate social issues nor care about their social identities. They are usually so preoccupied with survival that they do not cry out for what they "deserve." Why these extremes? Is there a way that the poor can prosper?
Capitalism,
more than any other economic system, has brought prosperity to some. It has increased longevity, enlarged the
range of choices, and made the eradication of poverty and famine attainable.
The fruit of this system has been freedom and democracy and an unparalleled
increase in human creativity and innovation.
While capitalism has made prosperity a reality for some, however,
significant numbers of people in capitalist societies are impoverished. The
most prosperous regions of the developed world manifest pockets of destitute
and wretched human populations.
This course seeks to engage students in an intensive interdisciplinary study of freedom, prosperity, and poverty. In line with the objectives of the Freedom Project, we plan to engage in fair-minded and informed investigations that respect a variety of philosophical, religious, and economic approaches to the topics of freedom, wealth, and poverty. We will foster an earnest and lively study of the meaning and responsibility of prosperity and the possibility of eradicating poverty.
The course has five
parts. Part I introduces students to
poverty through autobiographical writings and the testimonies of the poor in
the World Bank trilogy, Voices of the
Poor. Part II studies classical western ideas of wealth and poverty in the
Bible, early Christian theology including Clement of Alexandria and Augustine,
and later in John Calvin. Part III
surveys classical economic perspectives of wealth and poverty in Max Weber,
Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, Ronald Coase, Garret Hardin, and Karl Marx. In Part IV, having established a basic
understanding of the economics, theological, and philosophical views, we
evaluate the grounds of philanthropy using, among others, the thought of Aristotle
and Andrew Carnegie. In Part V we study microcredit as an economic, social,
political, and faith-based method for poverty alleviation. Scholars studied include Muhammad Yunus,
founder of the Grameen Bank, Jonathan Morduch, Shahidur Khandker, Aminur Rahman
and Michael Woolcock. At the end of this block students will report on their
empirical research on a microcredit development program such as ACCION
International, CARE, FINCA, CHOICE, etc.
CENTRAL QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED
Is there a way not only to "teach
the poor to fish," but also to create structures for the poor to acquire
their own equipment for fishing? In this
course, we will pay serious attention to the role of microcredit as a
sustainable moral and economic concept to enable the poor to transcend their
economic and morally destitute lives. Questions we will address include:
·
What is material and non-material poverty? How is poverty measured economically,
religiously, and philosophically?
·
What are the economic and non-economic causes of poverty? Low wages?
Minimum wage laws? Low skills level?
Lack of land and capital? Individual attributes? A culture of poverty?
Laziness? Lack of intelligence? Oppressive institutional forces (the church,
the government, political leadership)?
Charity and philanthropy that diminish incentive?
·
What specific moral and economic responsibilities do freedom and
liberty entail?
· Does microcredit lead to long-term alleviation of
poverty for the poor?
· Is it is possible that through microcredit leaders can learn to respect the manner in which the poor attempt to face their problems through self-help group activism?
· Will this allow officials to become accountable for their failure to direct resources to the poorest communities?
· Can self-help groups facilitate a sense of enablement through self-esteem and community solidarity?
·
In other words, can microcredit serve as a
vehicle to dispel false theories that the poor are victims of their own vicious
cycles of poverty and destitution?
· Do faith-based microcredit
agencies have a vital role to play?
·
Can free enterprise at the level of microenterprise help the poor
escape from material and non-material poverty through generating greater
income, economic confidence, social mobility, and active political
participation?
·
Is microenterprise an example of Adam Smith’s world of unhindered
competitive markets?
COURSE GOALS
The goals of this course are to address the interests of
the Freedom Project, the Values Mission of Stetson University, and the purposes
of the Departments of Economics and Religious Studies. Among the central goals are for students
to:
1. Appreciate the diverse views on freedom, prosperity, poverty,
charity, and philanthropy.
2. Discern the basic concepts of economics, including the ideas of a
free market.
3. Understand the basic ideals of democratic capitalism.
4. Understand the philosophy and economics of microcredit. Can it enhance freedom?
5. Become thoroughly acquainted with and critique a microcredit
development project.
6. Commit to their own views of personal and
social prosperity with respect to poverty.
N. B. The course is open to twenty students who
hold sophomore academic status by Spring 2001. It meets a requirement for both Economics and
Religious Studies majors and minors, counts toward the Applied Ethics minors,
and is an “E” or “Ethical Decision Making” course.
COURSE OUTLINE
Session 1: Introduce Course, Requirements, Expectations.
PART I
LISTENING TO THE POOR
Most Stetson students come
from affluent families. Most of them
have been insulated from the lives of the poor.
This insulation feeds false theories about the poor, most notably, a
tendency to blame the poor for their poverty.
We will immerse students in the experience of the poor through the
reading of two autobiographies and a study of the voices of the poor as
documented in the World Bank study by that title. (We will also share three meals with poor
people.)
Session 2: Autobiography of
Zora Neale Hurston (a Central Florida African-American political
activist)
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Perennial Classic, 1999.
Session 3: Autobiography of Mark
Mathabane, an indigenous South African man living amidst apartheid.
Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy, Touchstone,
1986.
Sessions 4 and 5: Voices of the Poor From Sixty Nations.
Deepa Narayan,
ed., Voices Of The Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us?
Vol. 1,
*********
FEASTING
WITH THE POOR: MEAL WITH
AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY OF SPRING HILL, DELAND
*********
PART
II
PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
FOUNDATIONS
OF FREEDOM, PROSPERITY, AND POVERTY
Session
6: The Hebrew Bible On
The Goodness Of The Material Creation, The Blessing And Responsibilities Of
Wealth, And The Vanity Of Life. The New
Testament On Sayings And Parables Of Jesus, Primitive
Communitarianism, Charity For The Poor, And The Misery Of Misused Riches
Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Deuteronomy 14-15:25, Proverbs
22:1-9, Amos 6:1-8, Ecclesiastes 9:1-10.
Mark 14:7, Matthew 5:3, Luke 12:13-21,
Session
7: Pre- and Post-
Constantinian Christianity.
Clement of
Cyprian, "On Works and Alms."
John Chrysostom, "Sermon on Luke
Augustine, "Epistles 156 and 157."
Session 8: John Calvin -- Prelude to Max Weber.
Selections from The Institutes of the Christian Religion
on the Christian calling, the blessings of material gain, the benefits of
righteous living, and the obligation to charity.
***Expert Discussant: Dr. D.
Department of Religious Studies, and dr. ron hall, philosophy
department,*
PART
III
ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS
OF FREEDOM, PROSPERITY, AND POVERTY
Sessions 9 and 10: Classical Moral and Economic
Thinkers on Freedom, Prosperity, and Poverty
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book 1;
The Theory Of Moral Sentiments, Part III,
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Chapter
2.
Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party.
Milton
Friedman, Capitalism
and Freedom, Chapter 1.
Alfred
Marshall, Principles
Of Economics, Chapter 1.
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism.
George Stigler and Ronald Coase, "Alfred Marshall's
Lectures on Progress and Poverty," Journal
of Law and Economics. April, 1969.
Gilbert, Geoffrey, "Adam Smith On The Nature And Causes Of Poverty," Review Of
Social Economy. 55(Fall 1997):273-92.
Thomson, Keith Stewart, "1798: Darwin And
Malthus," American Scientist. 86(May/June 1998):226-230.
Hont and M. Ignatieff (eds.),
"Needs and Justice in the Wealth of Nations: An Introductory Essay,"
in Hont and M. Ignatieff (eds.) The Shaping of Political Economy in the
Scottish Enlightenment (
Sessions 11and 12: Definitions And Measurements Of Poverty
Sharp, Register, and Grimes, Economics Of Social Issues, 2000, 14th edition, chapter
1 (Human Misery) and chapter 7 (Is Poverty necessary?).
Gerald Meier, Leading Issues In Economic Development, 6th ed. 1995,
Bradley Schiller The
Economics Of Poverty And Discrimination. Prentice Hall, 1999. Chs.1-2.
World Bank documents. On world-wide web at
www.worldbank.org.
Sessions 13, 14, 15, and 16: Contemporary Economic, Theological, Philosophical,
and Social Theories On Poverty
Cherry, Robert, "The
Culture-Of-Poverty Thesis And African Americans: The Work Of Gunnar Myrdal And Other Thinkers," Journal Of Economic Issues.
29(December 1995):1119-1133.
Hill, Lewis E. "The Institutional Economics Of Poverty:
An Inquiry Into The Causes And Effects Of Poverty," Journal Of Economic Issues.
32(June 1998):279-286.
Hernando
William Julius
Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged.
Hunt, Matthew O. "The Individual,
Society, or Both? A Comparison of Black, Latino, and White
Beliefs about the Causes of Poverty," Social
Forces. 75(1996).
Lakshman Yapa, "What Causes Poverty?: A Postmodern View," Annals Of The Association Of
American Geographers. 86(December 1996):707-729.
Christopher
Collier,
"NGOs, the Poor, and Local Government," Development in Practice. (August1996): 244-249.
Graham F. Wagstaff, "Attitudes to Poverty:
The Protestant Ethic, and Political Affiliation: A Preliminary
Investigation," Social Behavior and
Personality. 11(1983):45-47.
Sanger, Mary Bryna,
"Is Academic on Poverty Purely Academic?,
Galbraith, John Kenneth. "The Causes of
Poverty: A Clinical View," Population
Review. (July 1962):62-66.
Lasch, Christopher. "The Culture Of
Poverty And The Culture Of `Compassion',
Salmagundi. (Spring/Summer1993):3-12.
Lewis, Oscar, "The Culture Of Poverty,"
Society. 35(January/February
1998):7.
Heilbroner, Robert, "The Paradox Of Progress:
Decline And Decay In The Wealth Of Nations," Journal Of The History Of Ideas.
14(1973):243-62.
Spalding, Nancy L. "The Relevance Of Basic
Needs For Political And Economic Development," Studies In Comparative International Development. 25( Fall 1990):90-116.
Wilson,
George,
"Toward A Revised Framework For Examining Beliefs About The Causes Of
Poverty," Sociological Quarterly. 37(Summer 1996):413-417.
Tinker, Irene, "Alleviating
Poverty," Journal Of
The American Planning Association.
66(Summer 2000):229-243.
***Expert Discussant: Dr. RICHARD WOOD, Department of Economics and
dr. charles
veddEr, sociology and anthropology,
*********
FEASTING
WITH THE POOR: MEAL WITH MEXICAN COMMUNITY OF PIERSON,
*********
PART IV
ECONOMICS AND PHILOSOPHY
OF FREEDOM, WEALTH, AND PHILANTHROPY
Sessions 17 and 18: Perspectives on Philanthropy
Carnegie, Andrew. "The
Gospel of Wealth."
Anderson, Albert. "Aristotle
and the Ethics of Philanthropy."
Riley, Jonathan. "Philanthropy Under Capitalism."
Payton, Robert L. "God
and Money."
The above readings are in The Responsibilities of Wealth, Dwight
Burlingame, ed.
************
FEASTING
WITH THE POOR: Meal With Anglo Community, DeLand
***********
*********
BOOKFEAST: THE
CATHEDRAL WITHIN: TRANSFORMING YOUR LIFE BY GIVING SOMETHING BACK with author
*********
***********
PART V
THE CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS
OF MICROCREDIT
Sessions 19 and 20: Definition, History, And Theory Of The Informal Economy
Portes, A.,
Castells, M., and Benton, L. A. (Eds.), The Informal Economy: Studies In Advanced And Less Developed
Countries.
Castells, M. and Portes, A. "World
Underneath: The Origins, And Effects Of The Informal
Economy.”
Sassen-Koob,
S. "
Fernandez-Kelly,
M. P. and Garcia, A. M.,
"Informalization At The Core: Hispanic Women, Homework, and
the Advanced
Beneria,
L., "Subcontracting And Employment Dynamics In
Capecchi,
V., "The Informal Economy and the Development Of
Flexible Specialization In
Lebrun, O. & Gerry C., “Petty Producers And Capitalism”, Review
Of African Political Economy, 3
(1975):20-32.
Charmes, J., "A Critical Review Of
Concepts, Definitions And Studies In The Informal Sector," in Turnham, D.,
Salome, B., and Schwarz, A. (Eds.), The
Informal Sector Revisited. Development Centre Seminars, Oecd Bookshop, 1990.
Stepick, A., "Community Growth
Versus Simply
Surviving; The Informal Sectors Of Cubans And Haitians In
Henry, S. "Can The Hidden
Economy Be Revolutionary? Toward A
Dialectical Analysis Of The Relations Between The
Formal And Informal Economies," Social
Justice. 15(3/4):29-60.
The Kairos Document: Challenge To The Church." SACC,
Mcgee, T.G. "Peasants In The
Cities: A Paradox, A Paradox A Most
Ingenious Paradox,"
Human Organization. 32(1):135-142.
Smith, M. Estellie. "A
Million Here, A Million There, And Pretty Soon You're Talking Real Money,"
in M. Estellie
Smith (Ed.), Perspectives
On The Informal Economy. University Press Of
Session 21 and 22: Microcredit, The Grameen Model
Yunus,
Muhammad, Banker To
The Poor. Public Affairs, 1999.
Hossain, Ishtiaq, "An Experiment In Sustainable Human Development: The Grameen Bank Of
Morduch, Jonathan, “The Microfinance Schism,” World Development. 28(September,
2000):617-629.
Khandker, Shahidur R. and Samad, Hussain A., "Income And Employment Effects Of
Micro-Credit Programmes: Village-Level Evidence From
Wahid, Abu, "The Grameen Bank And Women In
Yunus, Muhammad, "Poverty Alleviation:
Is Economics Any Help? Lessons From The Grameen Bank Experience," Journal Of International Affairs.
52(Fall 1998):47-66.
YYYY
BOOKFEAST
on “banker to the poor” AND GUEST
LECTURE BY MUHAMMaD YUNUS, founder of grameen bank
YYYY
Sessions 23
and 24:
Microcredit Methodologies: Community Based And Individual Approaches
Nelson, Mknelly, Stack, And
Yanovitch, Village Banking
: The State Of The Practice. Village
Bank, 1996.
Fairley, Joanne, "New St