Distributive justice and global economics

Less Than Two Dollars a Day: A Christian View of World Poverty and Free Markets
By Kent A. Van Til
Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007

Reviewed by Greg deGroot-Maggetti

Less Than Two Dollars a Day examines different theories of distributive justice to find one that would change the reality that 40% of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Van Til starts from the conviction that “all humans merit access to basic sustenance because they all share God’s image and God’s world.”

His search for a more just approach to global economics began while living and working in Central America. Here, Van Til was struck by the disparity in life chances between his family and that of Ester, their maid.

Van Til’s goal “is to confirm a theory of justice in which the needs of people like Ester are met. The two realities shaping this argument are contemporary market economics and Christian ethics.”

He examines the principle of free-market economics, outlining how free market economics fail to ensure all humans have basic sustenance.

Van Til then explores what the Bible says about poverty and how contemporary theologies have applied this message to current realities. He draws heavily upon Abraham Kuyper’s theory of the social order to construct a theory of justice for today. He also draws on Michael Walzer’s notion of spheres of justice and from economists working within the social economic tradition.

Van Til successfully argues that a theory of justice must do more than protect life, property and contractual exchanges, the bases of free market economics. It must also include a universal right to basic sustenance. And he finds Kuyper’s formulation answers that requirement.

In the end, though, Van Til recommends charitable giving to international development agencies, pointing out that donations of $200 could “ ‘Free a Family’ from destitution and provide it with basic sustenance.”

Yet charitable donations do not do justice to workers in sweat shop factories or to communities whose land, water and livelihoods are destroyed by mining companies. Van Til’s theory of distributive justice, with its recognition of the different spheres of society, needs to be applied to those situations and needs to ask what different responsibilities these spheres have in ensuring justice is done.

At its best, Less Than Two Dollars a Day provides an accessible walk through different theories of distributive justice. Unfortunately, the final chapter offers a disappointing conclusion to an otherwise compelling work.