To the Victor Go the Spoils

I bought milk this afternoon. No big deal. I buy milk about once a week. Lynnette and I like to drink milk. I bought this milk at Kroger. I used my debit card and got cash back. It was a typical, American, capitalist transaction that occurs literally thousands of times every day in this country.

As usual, my typical experiences are anything but. Living in an urban setting affords its share of highlights and lowlights (like any neighborhood), and anything from a morning job to raking the leaves can quickly turn very exciting. On my way in to Kroger today, I man yelled at me to come over to his parked car. Hanging out of the driver’s side window, he said he had something to show me.

I’ve seen all the after school specials. I know that phrase could have meant that he had tainted candy, apples with razorblades, or worse. But, this entrepreneurial individual had two gold chains in his hand, and was asking if I might be interested in buying one. This is exactly the reason Lynnette prefers Publix.

I politely declined and went inside, greeted with weekly specials, lottery tickets, and produce. I was walking through a supermarket in free market America. What could be greater? The man in the parking lot is the bread and butter of what makes this economy great: individuals can gain access to the products to sell and generate revenue and provide themselves with access to the products to sell and generate…you get the point.

I didn’t stand in line to be handed my weekly allotment of milk today. I didn’t drive the same color and make of car to the store that everyone else has. One of the benefits of capitalism is the chance to be an individual (ironically expressed as buying and displaying what advertisers tell me everyone else has). A double-edged sword, capitalism has produced both the greatest wealth and the greatest poverty humanity has ever seen. But ask my buddy: he’d rather be selling gold chains out of his beat up ’78 Cadillac than walking to his hut with a half loaf of bread the government gave him.

Typically we think of Bill Gates or the Google boys as the poster children of capitalism. Hard work, innovation, risk, and skill combined for these people to give them more money than they’ll be able to spend. Contrast that with the thousands of homeless who die in the streets everyday across this land, and it doesn’t take a Steve Jobs to know that something is wrong. But what is it? The system, or those who live under it?

I extol the virtues of capitalism, not because I am a wealthy Republican, but because I have no better ideas. As a Christian, I attempt to stand outside of the system. Capitalism in itself is not evil or seductive; it is what is here in America. As a Christian, I must walk the fine line between utility and idolatry in how I view money. And as a Christian, I will not lead a revolution that brings the United States into an era of socialism. Rather, I will encourage those like me to freely give.

I don’t think capitalism is perfect, and I don’t think it’s great just because it makes people like Larry Flynt and Hugh Hefner rich. I think it’s great because without it, the parking lot jewelry salesmen would have been a statistic from the bread line. Capitalism gives us choices with our money and assets, and many choose poorly. I revolutionize the system by choosing wisely, and I choose to give.

The man selling gold chains was not a victim of an imperfect system; he was eking out a living under an imperfect system. The nobility of his profession can be debated all night long. Meanwhile, he’ll be smart enough to be out selling his wares, making a way, and hoping for tomorrow.