Rediscovering the founding virtues

                              

Despite almost fifty years of Great Society programs designed to alleviate poverty, America’s lower class is growing. Why some Americans are poor and increasingly dependent on government for basic needs is one of the most important public discussions we refuse to have. Though much is made of the welfare apparatus that treats the symptoms of the disease, the actual causes of economic despair are ignored.

One reason for this may be a fear that explanations of poverty are, at their core, racially unique and no one wants to walk that road. This is why social scientist Charles Murray’s latest book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, is an important beginning to the public conversation we need to have. By concentrating on whites Murray shows that contemporary American society divides most sharply by class, not race, and the lines are becoming more distinct. Most importantly, he goes beyond simplistic explanations of why economic disparity is growing and explores the cultural underpinnings of our growing divide. This is especially applicable to a state like Vermont, where racial diversity is virtually absent but class differences can be stark.

Central to this discussion is the recognition that there is a widening gap between the working class and the upper middle class, both of which are growing. These differences are not just economic – they encompass everything from television viewing, eating habits and hobbies to educational choices and civic involvement. Murray examines two mostly-white neighborhoods that encapsulate these economic sub-cultures –Fishtown, an urban neighboraahood, and Belmont, a wealthy suburb. The trends he observes in both areas demonstrate the growing cultural disparity which may also explain, at least in part, their economic divergence.

To summarize Murray’s 400-page book here is impossible but his discussion of America’s founding virtues provides a window into his theories on the changing American culture. Through the writings of our founding leaders and later discourses on the American project by such keen observers as Alexis de Tocqueville and Francis Grund, Murray identifies four traits and institutions that were core to our success as a society and a nation: industriousness, honesty, marriage and religion.

Murray traces the disintegration of these values to the 1960s; he actually establishes the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a pivotal point in the creation of modern American society. Though both Fishtown and Belmont experienced cultural upheaval related to the four virtues during the 1960s, marriage and religion in particular, Belmont pulled up and righted itself. After a period of decreased marriage and increased divorce and cohabitation, Belmont has now returned to nearly that same levels of marriage stability and religious practice that it had fifty years ago. Belmont’s population also demonstrates high rates of industriousness, especially among males in their peak earning years, and a high degree of trust and security.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for Fishtown. The decline in values, which had been practiced fairly uniformly across all classes in the early 1960s, continued in Fishtown. For instance, today only 48 percent of prime-age whites in Fishtown are married, compared to 84 percent in Belmont, and more than a third of Fishtown men have never been married. Since birthrates have not significantly declined, this can only indicate a similar increase in children born to unmarried women. In fact, Murray estimates 43-48 percent of Fishtown births are to unmarried women. As uncomfortable as it makes the politically correct among us, socials scientists have demonstrated repeatedly that children raised in single-parent homes are negatively affected by the situation. While this is true regardless of socio-economic status, it is also true that single mothers and their children comprise the poorest families.

The difference between Belmont and Fishtown in their observance and practice of the founding virtues is stark in all four categories. Industriousness in Fishtown has taken a nose dive, with 53 percent of households in 2010 having someone who worked at least 40 hours a week compared to 81 percent in 1960. Both property and violent crimes are committed today at far higher levels than they were in 1960. Regular church attendance and the benefits it brings of purpose, connection and community is almost non-existent in Fishtown. Meanwhile, Belmont continues to successfully practice the habits which have produced strong individuals, families and communities for centuries.

Here is where Murray sees a way out of the desperate situation in which Fishtown finds itself. Tolerance of all and any lifestyles is hurting those who should be able to look to the successful and find guidance. It is time, Murray says, for the Belmonts among us to start preaching what they practice. 

How can this be accomplished? What would such an effort look like? That is for each community to decide but mentoring, outreach, and both practical and moral instruction would seem important components of any endeavor. Churches and civic organizations should be involved and policy makers need to start crafting programs and legislation that incentivize responsible behavior. Whatever we do, we need to get started – we’re already running fifty years behind.

Mutual Aid: Historic Solution for Modern Problems

One of most troubling aspects of the growth of government is how it has limited our creativity in response to challenges of all kinds. This is especially apparent when financial difficulties confront us today. Instead of brainstorming as a society for fresh approaches to age-old difficulties, we pass the problems along to elected officials whose solutions usually involves forcing one group of people to pay for the needs or wants of another group. Is it any surprise that Americans increasingly look at each other with resentment and suspicion?

Ironically, some of the solutions we seek may be found in the past. Before the welfare state was created, before either employers or government took or were given responsibility for insuring us against every conceivable difficulty, people themselves came together in Mutual Aid or Friendly Societies. These voluntary organizations, the remnants of which still exist, formed under the premise that there is strength in numbers. These community-based associations required a small investment of time and money but provided great returns. They also showed individuals can work together without government interference to prepare for the future and provide comfort and security to each other in times of need.

Mutual Aid Societies consisted of people who banded together for a common financial and sometimes social purpose. The idea was that regular and widespread contributions to a mutual fund would build a community nest egg which could be used on behalf of members in times of need.  In England, where these groups were called Friendly Societies, the purpose was mainly financial: insurance, pensions, and savings or cooperative banking. In America, where these groups were usually called mutual aid or benevolent societies or fraternal organizations, they often combined to fill both financial security and social needs. Group events included regular meetings, dances and sporting events. Sometimes there were even ceremonies involved – Think Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble and the Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo lodge with its silly hats, passwords and convoluted handshake.

Typically, members of these organizations paid a regular membership fee and in return received an allowance to cover their financial obligations when they were sick or disabled. Many societies contracted “lodge doctors,” often newly-trained physicians looking to establish their practices, whom members could consult free of charge. During illness fellow society members would also provide emotional support by visiting regularly - this also helped ensure benefits were not being abused. When members died their funerals were paid for by their lodge mates and often there was some money left over for widows or other dependents.

Some mutual aid societies formed around common religious, ethnic or trade affiliations. There were female societies and African-American societies. In fact, these societies were often the only place where single women and blacks could build their own financial security. An unanticipated benefit of the use of lodge doctors was the opportunity it provided females and non-whites to become doctors. Medical colleges were created to train women and blacks for service to their benevolent societies. Unfortunately, these colleges fell victim to established medical practitioners who saw lodge doctors in general as competition and a threat to the dignity of their profession. One way these established professionals used the government to eliminate competition was by pushing for accreditation for medical schools, which put many small medical colleges out of business.

Some familiar organizations with us today are examples of mutual aid societies, most notably the American Association of Retired Persons and the Knights of Columbus. Credit unions and other financial services companies such as USAA, which serves retired and active-duty military personnel and their families, are also present-day equivalents. Unfortunately, the modern welfare state and the labyrinth of rules and regulations it has constructed around what once were mutually agreed upon and beneficial private interactions makes a revival of mutual aid societies on a small scale difficult if not impossible.

It is regrettable that proven community-based solutions such as mutual aid societies are no longer considered practicable. There are many who would chalk this up to the complexity of modern society but I would remind them that people themselves have not changed, only the construct within which they operate. We have the power to rectify that, if only we would.

Chicken Sausage Gumbo

I found this recipe in a magazine just after I was married and have been making it a few times each winter ever since. It is spicy and filling and just the perfect cold-weather comfort food. It takes a little time to make but is sooooo worth it!

For Chicken Sausage Gumbo you will need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (or to taste)
2 onions
3 stalks celery
7 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1-2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1/2 pound polish kielbasa

Pour oil into a large pot or dutch oven and and heat to medium. Place chicken on a piece of waxed paper and sprinkle both sides with garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Dredge both sides in flour (reserve flour for making roux later). Place chicken in oil and cook 8 minutes on each side.

While chicken is cooking, chop onions and celery. I usually do this in the food processor but I must admit it looks a little prettier when hand-chopped. It doesn't take that long and what else do you have to do while those chicken breasts are cooking anyway?

Remove chicken from oil and drain on paper towels; allow to cool slightly so you can handle it later. Meanwhile, it's time to make the roux. Turn heat to medium high (this is when I really love my gas cooktop!), scrape brown bits from bottom of pot and add the reserved flour. Blend well into the oil and stir constantly as the roux forms. In a few minutes it will turn a lovely red-brown - be careful not to burn!

Now comes the fun part - it's time to add the onions and celery and hear the sizzle! Steam rises up and the pungent odor of onions and roux fill the air - wonderful! Cook the vegetables in the roux for 2-3 minutes on medium-high, then reduce heat to low.

Slowly add chicken broth, stirring as you pour. Add cumin, dry mustard, bay leaf and garlic. We really love garlic so I use two teaspoons of chopped garlic but you can tone it down with just one. While the stew simmers, cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. If some of the thicker pieces are a little pink, don't worry - it will have plenty more time to cook. Add chicken to stew, cover and simmer 45 minutes.

This can simmer longer if you wish but be sure to keep the stove temperature low. About ten minutes before you are ready to eat, thinly slice kielbasa and add to the stew; heat through. 


Serve over rice with a side of fruit or salad - yum! This makes about eight servings and is actually better the next day. Enjoy!

The Morality of Capitalism

For some time now capitalism has served as the world’s favorite piñata. The blame is misplaced since most of our economic troubles are not the result of laissez-faire economics but the antithesis: market intervention and manipulation. In reality, capitalism and free markets are responsible for and supportive of much of what we value in our lives, our relationships and our society. For those who love freedom, capitalism is the highest moral ground on which they can stand. 

The most obvious evidence of capitalism’s constructive influence is the cooperation free markets produce among participants. When people engage in commerce there is an inclination to get along. Both parties want something from the other and both believe that exchange will somehow improve their lives. When I visit the Crazy Russian Girls bakery and buy a scone, I give them a couple of dollars because that scone is more valuable to me than the money. They accept my money because it is more valuable to them than the scone. We have both freely given to each other and the interaction has added value to our lives.

That peaceful exchange, like millions that are engaged in by people throughout the world every day, was prescribed by Thomas Jefferson as a good on the international level as well. "An exchange of surpluses and wants between neighbor nations is both a right and a duty under the moral law,” he said. He often linked peace and free commerce between nations, recognizing trading partners seldom declare war on one another.

Free markets also promote competition, which is nothing more or less than the pursuit of excellence. Competition encourages individuals and businesses alike to improve, grow and flourish. In the market this striving for excellence transpires in the service of others. Businesses are more successful when they please their customers so they compete with each other to provide the best goods and services. Pioneering businesses and cutting-edge entrepreneurs use competition to push themselves and their products forward. Consumers are the biggest winners in these contests.

Emulation is another positive component of free markets. Remember when you were a kid and your best friend went out and bought the same baseball cap you had but then dressed it up with some stickers? You complained to your mom, who told you when someone copies you they are paying you a compliment. Free market innovators copy each other all the time and they keep adding stickers to the original baseball cap until it is almost unrecognizable. They use free information garnered by both those who have come before and contemporaries to see what succeeds and what fails, and then act accordingly. This is how the goods and services we use evolve and improve. The key board I’m typing on was not invented by the same person who invented my laptop. It isn’t even the same one that first appeared on a typewriter decades ago. My laptop was not invented by one person but by many people building on ideas and inventions that came before them – and so on and so on.

This idea of emulation reveals the miracle of the free market. Many years ago it was expounded in a wonderful essay called“I, Pencil.” Written by Leonard E. Read, founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, “I, Pencil” is the autobiography of a pencil. What appears to us to be a simple object is actually the culmination of hours of labor and centuries of innovation and discovery. As Read succinctly concluded:

I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies—millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human masterminding! Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.

No, no one man or even a committee of men could create a pencil. This is why planned economies always fail. No group of people, no matter how smart they or we think they are, is smart enough to anticipate what Austrian economist Murray Rothbard described as the “highly complex, interacting latticework of exchanges” necessary to produce and distribute the goods and service human beings demand.

Capitalism is not without flaws, but then no system is because it is engaged in by people and people are imperfect. Still, a system that encourages voluntary cooperation and peaceful exchange must be considered morally superior to one in which force and coercion are necessary components, as is the case with any system that relies on confiscation and redistribution of wealth. Just as Winston Churchill said of democracy, capitalism is the worst economic system - except for all the rest.

My Universe, My Truth

My well-read copy of P&P and the Jane Austen bust I bought in Bath, England on my pilgrimage

You may recognize the title of this blog as a contracted version of the first line of Jane Austen's classic novel, Pride and Prejudice. It seems appropriate since I am a devotee of both Jane Austen and P&P. It also describes what this blog will do - give materiality to my truths, the truths of my universe. I walk around with lovely and sometimes even profound sentences and paragraphs floating around in my head but most of them never make it beyond that point. When I sit down to write I am interrupted or rushed or needed elsewhere - you get the picture, I'm sure, because you probably live a similar life.

This blog, however, represents a new commitment to my inner writer. It is my attempt to cultivate and honor the muse on a daily basis plus combine all the hobbies and interests and passions that fill my mind and heart. I want to figure out why they are meaningful to me and share them with others. Sometimes I will just want to share, period - for instance, the next time I make my Chicken Sausage Gumbo I plan to post the recipe and take photos as I create. I can almost guarantee anyone who stumbles on this blog and tries this recipe will love it!

I will also want to share the wisdom and understanding I have accumulated through my 50+ years of life. What is the point of reading and learning if what you learn is kept only to yourself or possibly spread to a few close friends and family members? There is so much we can learn from each other and I wish I had learned more from those who came before me. Wisdom should not be hoarded! Not that I am the wisest person ever to breathe but I do think a lot and occasionally that does result in a philosophical pearl or two. I will try to put those precious gems of understanding into words so others may take a shortcut to their "Aha!" moment.

Often I will summarize some new things I have learned or new perspectives gained through whatever podcasts I'm listening to or whatever book I am reading. Sometimes I may just vent or reflect on the whys and wherefores of modern life. Even then, however, I will try to come to some kind of useful conclusion because there is too much to learn in this world to waste time on writing with no purpose other than complaint.

I will also get political sometimes. I can't help it, I swim in this stuff and most of the professional writing I do is political. Since I was a child I have loved American history and the ideas and values that created this nation. I believe in freedom and liberty and love studying the ideas which form the basis for classical liberalism or libertarianism or the freedom philosophy or whatever you wish to call it. I believe in natural rights and the obligation each human being has to live his or her life to the fullest extent of his or her talents and abilities. I believe in maximum freedom so we each may achieve our potential.

I trust people to know what is best for themselves, their families and their communities. I believe neighbors can and should help neighbors when times are tough, though that must come through persuasion and never force. I believe government and society are and should remain two separate entities and it is the role of society to determine the social order. Because government represents force I believe its only legitimate role is as a protector of individual rights. It does not exist to level the playing field or furnish the many needs and wants of humankind because to do so necessarily implies forcing some to behave as government demands rather than as conscience and character dictate. There is also often difficulty in distinguishing between needs and wants. However well-intentioned,  government usually deteriorates into a corrupt entity which exists mainly to justify its existence and therefore should be minimal.

I will also take on modern culture, literature, sports and anything else that piques my interest and inspires the muse. I hope some of what I write will also inspire you and I hope you will feel free to comment, argue, expound and participate. All I ask is that we keep it polite - it is what Jane Austen would want.