Less Than Two Dollars A Day

Christian tradition demands basic sustenance for all as a human right. Yet contemporary capitalist economy makes no such demands, and the free market is not designed to provide basic sustenance. As Western Christians, how ought we to solve this conundrum? Kent Van Til maintains that the gulf between the two creates a need for an alternative system of distributive justice.

Van Til looks at the realities of life in a free market system, including illuminating examples from his own experience in Latin America. He considers how contemporary capitalist economy has become the process that guides the distribution of goods around the world, and he examines the incapability of such a system to meet basic human needs in either ethics or economics.

Once he exposes the problem, Van Til has no qualms about offering a solution. Drawing heavily on the ideas of political theorist Michael Walzer and nineteenth-century theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper, he proposes an alternative system of distributive justice, equalizing the claims to both burdens and benefits. Bridging biblical theology, political theory, economic history, and social theology, Less Than Two Dollars a Day issues a wake-up call to all who profess to “love their neighbor as themselves.”