 | | Reinhard Marx |
Reinhard Marx, Bishop of Trier, was the guest speaker at the 16th IZA Tower Talk, where he spoke before a crowd of 300 invited guests on the relationship between labor and capital in the age of globalization. Marx, who is chair of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s Commission for Social Questions, outlined the basic principles of Catholic social teaching and commented that “freedom in responsibility” must be the goal of economics. To that effect, the bishop rejected any form of collectivism and mapped out his idea for a “social market economy based on ethical principles,” which would need to be strongly aimed at (global) welfare. Marx warned that methodological individualism in economics – in the form of “homo oeconomicus” – cannot be the only valid view of the world, and said that he viewed politics and economics as responsible to hinder boundless global capitalism.
Furthermore, Marx criticized noticeable tendencies toward a “rent-seeking society,” in which short-term profit maximization are the paramount principles. Capitalism and the free market economy, stressed Marx, will only be ethically maintainable through a binding, universally-accepted legal framework. Even the Catholic social teachings explicitly speak out on the concept of free market economy – though “material prosperity is not the only goal.” Competition must be understood as a means – not the end. The free market economy requires a long-term period of dependability, along with a state-run framework, in order to strengthen the trust of the people.
The matter of how such a state-run framework could look in the age of globalization served as the topic of a lively audience discussion, led by IZA Director of Labor Policy Hilmar Schneider. According to Marx, the WTO could play a key role in developing a framework that would prevent “degrading labor conditions,” and take to heart the notion of minimum working standards at the international level. |
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