Appointment of Bill Daley as Chief of Staff Reflects Triumph of Economic Materialism

Human persons and the families which they form must be the primary concern of economic policy

When a society fails to recognize that persons are more important than things it devolves into a form of practical materialism, worshipping a new golden calf. When the promotion of human rights and  authentic human freedom are no longer the core concern of economic policy we all suffer.

P>WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - On Thursday, January 6, 2011, the U.S. President confirmed his selection of William M. Daley as the new Chief of Staff for his administration. Daly is the brother of the Mayor of Chicago and hails from an old Chicago political machine. He was appointed Commerce Secretary under the Clinton Administration after playing a significant role in the Clinton Presidential campaign. He has been clear in his political leanings for years and was a significant supporter of President Obama during the Presidential campaign.

However, that was NOT the story line which the media reported on this appointment. Nor was it reflected in the stream of pundits discussing what the appointment means for this administration as it moves into the future. Daley is the Midwest chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co. He will leave that post to join an administration which has been viewed as "anti-business". He is being presented as a "moderate" and "centrist" who is "business friendly".

One of the quotes in reports was from the President of the Chamber of Commerce, a group which has been disaffected by President Obama, "This is a strong appointment. Bill Daley is a man of stature and extraordinary experience in government, business, trade negotiations, and global affairs. He's an accomplished manager and strong leader. We look forward to working with him to accelerate our recovery, grow the economy, create jobs, and tackle America's global challenges."

Daley served on the Board of an economic think tank called "Third Way" which claims a purportedly alternative approach to market capitalism. When Daley joined the Board he said "We must acknowledge that the left's agenda has not won the support of a majority of Americans - and, based on that recognition, we must steer a more moderate course." So, for days we have heard that the appointment of Bill Daley reflects a change in the economic approach of the US Administration.  

The Pro-Life Press reported that this man who will hold one of the most influential positions in the Administration supports the current policy of abortion on demand in the United States. The Catholic Press pointed out that he joins the growing number of dissident Catholics whom this president has appointed. Daley's public rebuke of Francis Cardinal George for the Cardinals proper stand for life and against the honoring of President Obama by the University of Notre Dame's Law School, has made its way into many stories.

In an April 2, 2009 column for the Chicago Tribune entitled "Cardinal George, you're dividing your church"  Bill Daley publicly lambasted the Cardinal and declared his open dissent from his own Church. He did the "Mario Cuomo two step" of many Catholic politicians, implying that the Catholic position on the fundamental human right to life is somehow only "religious" and therefore should not become a matter of public policy.

The Catholic defense of the fundamental human right to life is based upon the Natural Law and confirmed by medical science. Bill Daley knows that as do all of the other Catholics in the Administration who try to hide their failure to defend the Right to Life in Orwellian Newspeak.

I suggest the stories on Bill Daley in the secular and religious press failed to zero in on the real problem with this appointment; it reflects the triumph of Economic Materialism over Human Dignity. When a society fails to recognize that persons are more important than things it devolves into a form of practical materialism, worshipping a new golden calf.

As we watched the indices of global stock markets plummet we failed to realize that at root we have a moral rather than an economic problem. The financial crisis is the bad fruit of the greed which has elevated the accumulation of stuff over persons to the level of something to emulate. It also dragged us down with the indices.

This practical materialism has given rise to a counterfeit set of purported "values" which place consumption over care. They thereby erode true and authentic human freedom, whether that freedom is expressed in a market economy which purports to promote it or other structures of social, cultural and political life which are succumbing to its corrosive effects.

I can hear it - and read it - now; allegations that anyone who dares to suggest that the roots of our financial struggles are the same roots which have prompted the overall moral collapse of our culture - is an imbecile, a shallow thinker, or even worse, "uninformed". Further, that anyone who claims that the cause of it all can collectively be laid at the feet of a culture which has allowed the human person to become a commodity, a thing to be disposed of or used, is a "religious fanatic".

Frankly, I do not care about those allegations. Rather, I care about my neighbor, the one living in the first home of the whole human race who is daily being dismembered, suctioned, burned or through "surgical strikes" and the unregulated use of chemical weapons turned against him or her, routinely killed at the hands of a so called medical professional who once pledged to "do no harm".

The counterfeit "morality" of "supply and demand" has now commoditized even babies. The consumer is told they have a "right" to select them, design them, and reject them, at will. The "medical professional", who knows that the one being killed is a human person, responds to this consumer driven approach to birth and hides behind the constitutionally protected "right" to kill the child, all too often made by a confused mother who has routinely been lied to. There is no "Right" to take innocent human life. It is always wrong no matter what the current positive law declares.

When the promotion of human rights, authentic human freedom and human flourishing are no longer the core concern of economic policy we all suffer.  Freedom is a good of the person.  At the heart of a "free market" are free persons. Human persons and the families which they form must be the primary concern of economic theory. When persons are only one more commodity we are in trouble. That is why I care about this recent appointment. I care about the human persons affected by our current economic mess, beginning with our youngest neighbors. 

I also care about the neighbor whose dream of owning their first home is no longer attainable. The bankers approved their mortgage application but they are threatened with eviction because that "personally recommended" Adjustable Rate Mortgage" (A.R.M.) has become a financial "sword of Damocles" threatening their family. The economics "experts" and government officials now refer to their mortgage, the fruit of their hard work and savings, as junk "commercial paper".

I care about that neighbor who can barely afford to put gas in their automobile and drive to work because special interests, knowing full well that we have the genius and ability to solve this energy crisis, have placed profits over people and the common good. I care about the neighbor who worries that their child is being taught at a public school but still cannot read. However, they cannot afford to choose to send them to a school of their choice.

When a society fails to recognize that persons are more important than things it may still use the language of human rights but it has lost its true moral content. When there is no recognition of the preeminent right to life what follows is an erosion of the entire structure of human rights.

This is because without the right to life all of the talk about compassion for the poor and the promotion of freedom throughout the entirety of life is hollow and empty. Failing to recognize our first neighbors in the womb as having a right to be born and to live a full life in our community is a failure of our obligation in solidarity to one another.

Mother Teresa put it clearly: "America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters.

"And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign."

We need a Moral recovery if we ever hope to have an economic recovery. The appointment of Bill Daley does not appear to move us in that direction.

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