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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 9. Economic Inequality - 3. The Value Premises
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214 American Dilemma
decreasing, a new impetus is given toward mass organizations.® Through-
out America collective interest groups are gradually getting the sanction
of public approval.® The growth of labor unions is on the verge of becoming
looked upon as a realization of the American belief in the independence and
integrity of the individual.
When all these trends have reached their maturity, the meaning of
economic individualism in the American Creed will have changed consider-
ably. For the time being, however, the American Creed is somewhat dis-
organized in respect to economic life. For our present purpose of selecting,
out of the main stream of national thinking, the relevant value premises for
studying the economic aspects of the American Negro problem, a satis-
factory minimum of clear-cut economic ideals seems to be available in spite
of this state of flux.
We shall, in our inquiry, assume that the following norms are generally
and explicitly held on the higher or national plane of the valuation sphere
in the hearts of ordinary Americans:
1. There is nothing wrong with economic inequality by itself. The mere
fact that the Negro people are poorer than other population groups does
not per se constitute a social problem. It does not challenge the American
Creed. This first value premise will not be conspicuous in our inquiry. Its
main significance is the negative one of keeping our study within the con-
servative reformist limits of average American economic discussion.
2. Somewhat less precise is our second value premise: that no American
population group shall be allowed to fall under a certain minimum level of
living. This premise also assumes Negro poverty and all other poverty as
a matter of fact. It insists only that poverty shall not go too far without
being given public attention and amelioration. It offers a means of evaluat-
ing the social effects of poverty and affords a motivation for social welfare
policy. Even if the general principle of a minimum level of living must now
be considered as established in national thinking, it is still undecided how
high or low this minimum level should be.
3. Our third value premise is bound to be the most significant one for
our inquiry as it brings out the principal chasm between American ideals
and practices: that Negroes shall be awarded equal opportunities. In so far
as Negro poverty is caused by discrimination, the American Creed is
challenged in one of its most specific and longest established precepts.
Equality of opportunity, fair play, free competition—“independent of race,
creed or color”—is deeply imprinted in the nationally sanctioned social
morals of America. This value premise must direct every realistic study
of the Negroes’ economic status in America.
Discrimination is, for this reason, the key term in such a study. This term
is defined in relation to the norm of equality of opportunity in the American
Creed. In this sense it is, naturally, a “value-loaded” term, and rightly so.
• For wine further comments upon this development, see Chapter 33.
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