Part of the idea of what people refer to as "The American
Way of Life," is wrapped up in the whole notion of our "Standard of Living."
The "Living Standard" is a measure of consumer spending. It is concerned
with how many things we can buy, how expensively we are able to live, what
luxuries we might afford. For many (perhaps most) Americans, the purpose
of work is to earn a wage or salary in order to support the level of consuming
that we believe is right for us and will make us happy.
Americans will say they reject these materialistic ideals. Yet they
might find it difficult to explain how their vision of work and leisure
differs from the "getting and spending" syndrome that plagues our society.
Chesterton's writings offer a ready cure for this disease. He will remind
us that work is or should be a vocation and that it is really more fun
to produce than to consume. He will remind us that the end purpose of
work is a product, not a wage, and that all the exchanges in which people
exploit one another, both socially and financially, are also opportunities
for people to dignify one another.
Chesterton lamented that "the spotlight of social importance" had passed
from workmanship to salesmanship and from thrift to indebtedness. He regretted
that "the tricks of every trade are tricks of selling things rather than
tricks of making them." He knew that the getting and spending lifestyle
is no road to any kind of happiness. Chesterton called his alternative
"Distributism," and those who dismiss it as "impractical" have nothing
to offer us but materialistic dreams of avarice and clutter.
Gilbert! will continue to publish articles dedicated to Distributism,
including our regular "Urban Distributist" feature," Carl Cassidy's "On-The-Job"
stories, the "Distributism Is Everywhere" press clippings, and Chesterton's
own writings on the subject. [J.P.]
[And for further reading in Chesterton's works, see "The Enemies of
Property" and "The Modern Slave" in What’s Wrong with the World and "A
Workman’s History of England" in Utopia of Usurers.]
