Is it immoral to be inefficient? I think in the past this would have perhaps been a silly question, but now concerns for human impact on the environment have brought it new life.
I think we can all agree that extreme sloth is bad. Any person who doesn't provide for their own basic needs with no reason has to be cared for from the largesse of others. Laziness is considered a vice by most.
However while I think most of the people I know have always lauded great productivity as morally good I'm not sure about it. I certainly think it is useful and can be used for good (greater wealth to give to the needy for instance). But is it inherently to itself good?
Does the corporate raider who generates a tremendous amount of wealth for many people doing something inherently good? Is the more efficient (if perhaps less humane) distribution of wealth good or bad? If we replace workers with robots and lower overall employment have we done something good?
Should we take a utilitarian approach to the situation? Do we want to generate the greatest value to people even if that value is less equitably distributed?
What if I'm providing a service to someone at an outrageous price because they don't know or understand the alternatives? Am I being immoral? Am I in fact being moral because I'm extracing more wealth for myself?
Is it wrong or right to lay off someone who has a job that is entirely redundant for a company?
We come to a place where the core conflict becomes one of people versus efficiency.
Should we deny expensive care to Medicare patients so that less expensive care can be given to a large group of other people with higher chances of recovery?
What are the responsibilities on us that exist because we live in a world with scarcity? Do we have a responsibility to care for as many people as possible? Doesn't that just leave us in a place of utilitarianism? At what point can we sacrifice one person for the greater good? How many people and cultures have gone down terrible roads when starting on a path to this greater good?
I wish I had answers for these questions.
I think my approach to the Bible is often one of looking for personal action. For the above problems I have answers for myself. Turning to the wisdom literature we see encouragement to work hard, but a reminder that wealth without contentment is pointless. I don't have a lot of ambition so my focus is on not being motivated enough, but I can easily provide for my family so my motivation to work more hours is pretty low.
I'm going to try and do some more studying of corporate action in the Bible. It gives some outline for how the church should work, but very few specifics. I'll see what I can come up with and do a second post if I find anything. I'm not expecting to find anything.
To the question of environmental impact, I do think it behooves us to care appropriately for our world. On the flip side I don't agree with the degree of moral condemnation people bring to bear on others for eating non-locally grown food while ignoring lots of other problems. Of course plenty of people like to point out the existence of problems so they can pull focus off of what they can do to be a little more efficient.
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