Citizen Tom

Almost all participate in factional politics.

This is the fourth part of a six-part essay.  Here are the six parts.

• Why Did I Write This Series?
• Capitalism Versus Socialism And The Culture War?
• What Does The Bible Say About Private Property?
• What Is The Problem With Collectives?
• When Is Socialism the Best Moral Choice?
• When Is Capitalism The Best Moral Choice?

What Is The Problem With Collectives?

This post will not likely tell you anything you did not already know.  That is not the point.  The object here is to look again something you have already seen from a different perspective.

What is a collective?

First let us define our terms.  Here is one definition a collective.

collective
     adj 1: done by or characteristic of individuals acting together; "a
            joint identity"; "the collective mind"; "the corporate
            good" [syn: corporate]
     2: forming a whole or aggregate [ant: distributive]
     3: set up on the principle of collectivism or ownership and
        production by the workers involved usually under the
        supervision of a government; "collective farms"
     n : members of a cooperative enterprise

We form collectives to pool our talents to produce results that we cannot achieve alone.  In fact, we like to organize into groups, and so there are many kinds of collectives.  There are social clubs, churches, governments, schools, corporations, confederations, labor unions, orchestras, partnerships, nations, cities, states, counties, tribes, clans, families, mobs, cooperatives, charities, political parties, fan clubs, and so forth.  People have discovered a multitude of ways to organize for a multitude of purposes.

Collectives do that which pure individual private enterprises can not do.  When economies of scale are needed, collectives allow large numbers of people to raise the needed capital and to work together.   When leverage is needed with a large employer, workers organized to form unions.  Whenever people with common interests see an advantage in coordinating their activities, they will form a collective.

So What Is The Problem With Collectives?

Like anything else, a collective can be used for a good or a bad end.  Churches can be used to preach love or hatred.  Schools can use to teach children to think for themselves or to indoctrinate them into an unholy cause.   Corporations can be used to provide inexpensive food, clothing, and shelter; or as the basis for a monopoly that forces customers to pay excessively high prices.   Labor unions can be used represent workers so that they will be fairly compensated or to monopolize labor and bleed corporations dry.  We can use collectives to build a society up or destroy it from within.

Collectives cannot exist apart from a society; collectives must operate within a society.  Collectives are molded by and in return shape the society in which they function.  For example, families, churches, schools, colleges, and universities exist to raise, educate, and mold the character of our people.  As the result of what these institutions have taught us, we live and govern ourselves in certain ways.  At the same time other collectives mold and shape the character of families, churches, schools, colleges, and universities.  Some companies and corporations provide food, clothing and shelter while others provide entertainment and manufactured goods.   What some companies do strengthen families; others undermine families and distort their churches.  Schools, colleges, and universities are funded by all levels of government.  Rival political parties and interest groups constantly battle over educational methods and content.  Thus the mission of schools, colleges, and universities slowly changes over time, and the nature of families shifts in its character.

Whether a collective does ill or good depends upon the character of the collective.  A collective can too easily become a dangerous liability.  Consider these examples.

• In 1911, because it had become such a large and dangerous monopoly, Standard Oil had to be broken up (See here).
• Because the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, a union, exercised a labor monopoly, Ronald Reagan had to break this union in 1981 (See here).
• Our recent fiscal woes began with the bankruptcy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (See here.).  These are government sponsored agencies that some idiots (you, I, and all our fellow citizens) allowed to operate in the private market place.  These outfits encouraged lenders to make bad loans.
• The big three automakers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) and their parasite union, the United Auto Workers, have received a bailout from the taxpayers (see here).  There is no telling how much this bailout will cost or what out bailouts it will lead to.  Supposedly, the automakers are just another collective that is too big to fail.  Note what the Heritage Foundation has to say about UAW wages and benefits (See here.).
• The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are powerful lobbies as well as labor unions.  These organizations block any attempt to institute market competition in education (See here.).  Because of these organizations, parents cannot educate their children the way they would wish.  Instead of parents, the teacher’s unions help to ensure that politicians, the most trusted souls in our nation, decide what children should learn.

When collectives conspire for their own wants and desires above all else, instead of supporting a society, they grasp, tear, and pull it apart.  From the perspective of the collective and its members, this may seem like rational behavior.  However, from the perspective of society, the collective that contains all the other collectives, this behavior is self-destructive factionalism.

What Is The Solution To The Problem With Collectives?

How collectives function and whether a collective does good or ill is ultimately determined by the character of  its members and customers.   With respect to the collectives with which we participate, we each can be a supporter, a customer or a parasite.

• A supporter may be, for example, a worker within a corporation.  A supporter is concerned that his corporation produce the best product possible.  He see much of his own success in his company’s success.
• A customer receives the services or product of a collective.  In return for those services or products, a customer willingly pays a fair price.
• A parasite seeks to tap the resources of a collective solely for his own benefit.   If a collective has enough parasite members or customers, it dies.

If most of the members of a collective want to serve their society, that collective will be of benefit to society.  If most of the members of a collective believe in paying a fair price for the services rendered to them, that collective will fairly compensate other collectives for services and products rendered.

The solution is in us.  With a little effort, we can choose to be hardworking supporters and fairminded customers.  Or we can be enthusiastic and diligent parasites.  What matters are the values we choose to adopt and practice.

Continued — When Is Socialism the Best Moral Choice?

Sometimes we are at cross-purposes with one another and grasping.

What helps is to remember the difference between what belongs to us and what belongs to someone else.