Memo to the GOP

THE MARKET IS NOT GOD.

Enough theo-capitalism already.

There are situations in which the market is a perfectly acceptable way of solving things. I do not want to see it abolished from our lives.

But it's time to acknowledge the market's chief limit: it is motivated solely by profit. The market is not motivated by morals or ethics. Certainly there are individual capitalists with a greater cause. But the market itself is driven by the love of money.

So there are some things the market just can't solve. Like health care: As we were reminded tonight, Teddy Roosevelt called for reform nearly a hundred years ago. We have spent the greater part of a century waiting for the invisible hand of the market to produce morally acceptable results. But that is not the purpose of markets! The market did exactly what it is meant to do: it maximized money. It cannot be trusted to do anything else. Our century of reliance on free-market principles has produced double-digit profit margins, multiple layers of corporate overhead and bureaucracy, and a system where every decision is made based on the ability of someone to profit from different courses of action. Given the purpose of markets, we should not be surprised.

But we should be outraged. This is NOT how we are called to care for the sick. History has proven that the market can't, and private philanthropy won't, do what is necessary to solve the moral and ethical issues is this area.

But rather than address the problem, the GOP blindly insists on worshiping the free market. They still think that if we "give the problem to the market," it will get solved. We're supposed to be giving our problems to God.

How God calls us to solve this problem together is a subject for another post. But it's clear to me that simply trusting the market - giving in to our love of money - is definitely NOT the answer.