Last Thursday, I was heartened to read the news that my church, Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, had collected $ 732,000 from its members (in addition to his weekly) for tsunami relief in Southeast Asia. Which partially offset the news that I had read the previous Thursday - as reported in The Wall Street Journal - that the tariffs were imposed on Sri Lanka's nearly 250 million U.S. dollars in 2003.
Almost all of this amount the tax was imposed on the textile industry in Sri Lanka. And the amount required that a foreign industry exceeded all tariffs on all trade with all six Scandinavian countries - despite the fact that these countries export almost 12 times more for the United States, about 10 times more than GDP
people of Sri Lanka, and which have per capita incomes are far higher than those in Sri Lanka.
Why does this happen?
The textile industry in this country is one of many interest groups that benefit from having their restricted competition. They and their politicians are in favor of imposing discriminatory taxes on foreign producers and American consumers.
In contrast to the obvious benefits for politicians and industry protected, the costs imposed are thin. How many know that consumers pay significantly higher prices for clothing because of these laws? How many voters care that foreign workers and investors in poor countries are hampered in their ability to sell products to the market the world's richest?
Why Christians tend to pay attention almost exclusively to relatively few (though important) problems, they often ignore other important policies. The passions of the charm religious right on issues of social morality and abortion, but rarely think about issues of economic justice. The Scriptures, especially through the
prophets, offer a more balanced picture. The interests of the religious left are concentrated more closely around the fate of the poor.
But their political attention in this world are relatively narrow, focusing primarily on welfare and foreign aid. Pragmatism would seem to justify discussing a wider range of issues. Libertarians are thrilled to receive voluntary Christian charity, but saddened that the political shenanigans that can easily swamp the efforts of people ompassionate.
All that said, care for the poor and oppressed is not a strictly Christian year. And few people, Christian or not, are informed about primary and secondary consequences of significant political issues. Although Southeast Christian Church may be pleased and honored to pay a portion of the tax burden of Uncle Sam for the Sri Lankans,
maybe we should all pay more attention to larger issues of trade protectionism and the mechanics of economic justice.
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