Bryan Graham's article "Baha'i Approaches to Economics" surveys some of the secondary Baha'i literature on the Baha'i Faith and economics. It seems strange in this context, that the author ignored those articles which dealt with Marxism and the Baha'i Faith until we realize that the Graham's concern here appears to be primarily to defend capitalism and classical theories of economics against what he feels are the somewhat unfair and uninformed criticisms made in this body of literature. Graham describes some of he standard elements to Baha'i economic theory. These include the principle that work should be done in a spirit of service as an act of worship, that the Baha'i concept of distributive justice requires that the elimination of the extremes of wealth as well as rewarding the worker for the value of his contribution, and that a spirit of cooperation should govern industrial relations and commerce. The writers Graham reviewed all agreed that the Baha'i teachings regarding work as worship implies honesty, hard work and service. Graham points out that such ideas are not unique to Baha'is. Adam Smith, who was first and foremost a moral philosopher and only secondarily an economist, recognized the connection between honesty and good business while more recent economists have noted the extent to which corruption serves as a barrier to development in many parts of the world. Graham also mentions the emphasis placed on voluntary giving but gives only cursory attention to 'Abdu'l-Baha' s call for a graduated income tax.
In noting the treatment given by Baha'i authors to the subject of distributive justice, Graham notes that Baha'is accept the inequality of wages as rooted in the Baha'i principle of justice which in turn rests on rewards and retribution. However when wages are not reflective of productivity the economic system must be considered exploitive, and therefore tyrannical. In addition society has a responsibility to provide a safety net to ensure that basic needs are met. Graham suggests that Baha'i t heories in this regard might be profitably informed by 19th century utilitarian and libertarian theories. The teachings on Baha'i concepts of justice as they relate to economics might also be correlated with more recent literature demonstrating the relationship between equity and growth. Yet Baha'i scholars have largely ignored or been dismissive of research in this field even though it would provide significant empirical support to many Baha'i ideals such as giving priority to the education of women. All Baha'i authors discuss 'Abdu'l-Baha's emphasis on cooperative industrial relations with it's elements of consultation and profit sharing. Yet most of the Baha'i authors take a negative view of the profit motive which they link with greed. While the service motive is certainly important, ignoring the profit motive often leads to decreased efficiency. A similar problem arises from an over-emphasis on cooperation over competition, a theme which runs through virtually all the Baha'i articles. Graham, on other hand argues that competition insures that prices reflect the actual costs of production. Furthermore, cooperation is not always a good thing for it sometimes leads to collusion to raise prices as is the case of cartels. Rather than simplistically promote cooperation over competition, Baha'is should consider in what contexts each would be considered constructive or destructive. Graham finds a regrettable and pervasive attitude of antagonism both towards capitalism and towards the academic field of economics in the Baha'i literature he reviews. This is largely a result of the fact they know so little about it. Most Baha'is tend to blame the capitalistic market system for our present day consumer society whereas Graham argues that the origins of capitalism are to be found in what Max Weber termed the "Protestant Work Ethic" which decried conspicuous consumption.# Graham also insists that it is capitalism which is responsible for the most massive reduction of poverty in history. Graham concludes by decrying the triumphalistic attitude displayed by so many Baha'i towards the knowledge gained by academic research which allows us to take too facile an approach to complex questions like economics. In so doing Baha'is not only fail to learn a great deal that might shed light on their own teachings, but they also can find no common ground with which to dialogue with the leaders of thought outside our community. While I very much resonate with Graham's criticism of the anti-intellectualism found so often among Baha'is who insist that 'everything is in the Writings' an antagonism all too often exhibited towards academic studies in general, I am less enthusiastic about his whole-hearted embrace of Classical Economics. It is quite true that Adam Smith's economic theories were as much informed by ethical considerations as those Baha'i writers are, their application had very different results. Whereas Adam's theories were designed to critique mercantilism, they were often applied to limit social welfare legislation. While competition between capitalists where it is not subverted may well help keep prices down, when such 'free competition' is applied to labor the net result is that wages tend to drop below subsistence as the workers with the least need such as children and youth are favored at the expense of adults responsible for supporting a family. Furthermore while capitalists themselves may have embraced a philosophy of life which encouraged frugality and investment, the increase of factory production entailed persuading others to consume. Whereas Adam Smith's theories constituted an argument against imperialism, today those same theories are used by multi-nationalism throughout the world to avoid regulation. One can't help but wonder if alternative economic theories like communitarianism would not have closer affinities to the Baha' i Teachings than does Classical Economics. However in either case, Graham is correct that Baha'is must familiarize themselves with these various theories and stop pretending they have everything to give and nothing to learn. The final article in this collection, "Women, Education and Development" by Geeta Gahdhi Kingdom proceeds to do just what Graham in the previous article recommended, she discusses the current research findings regarding the impact of female education on development. Kingdom asserts that besides the intrinsic value of educating women there is also an instrumental value inasmuch as female education on the secondary level leads to a significant decrease in both infant mortality and population growth, one much greater than other strategies aimed directly at these problems. While Baha'is tend to emphasize the importance of an educated woman's ability to educate and raise her children more effectively, a result the research bears out, more significant outcomes seems to be the increased value of a woman's economic activities and the fact that further education tends to increase the typical marriage age, thus reducing population growth. Some countries resist providing increased education to women arguing that it leads to a breakdown of the family and increased incidents of divorce. Kingdom goes on to make the rather odd statement that this is a valid argument concluding that the content of education must be regarded as important as its accessibility. If education of women leads to an increase in divorce might not this be because educated women are less likely to accept subservient roles in patriarchal families, most especially joint family systems? How then would Kingdom change the content of a woman's education? One wonders if she would design it to make women more accepting of this subservience! Another factor which stands in the way of increased education for women is that in countries without adequate state support for its elderly, parents rely on the assistance of male children in their old age. Therefore investing in a boy's education is likely to reap more economic benefits to the parents than educating a girl which will instead benefit someone else's family. Kingdom feels that the only way to offset this problem is for governments to offer financial incentives for parents to educate their daughters. The essays in Reason and Revelation prove quite stimulating and are written on a significantly higher intellectual level than much of secondary Baha'i literature. However, most of them don't really achieve what they set out to accomplish, namely demonstrate the ways in which academic method can enrich our study of the Baha'i Faith. Most were largely lacking in any vigorous application of academic methods while others violated the some of the most basic rules of the disciplines they claimed to represent. The most valuable essays were those which described the methods applied in history, literature and the social sciences and provided some limited examples of how they might be used within the Baha'i context. Still one can't help but wish we would stop defending the value of academic methods and spend more energy on the production of intensive studies which utilize them. 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