In a September 5, 2014 article “Capitalism and the Common Good” published in Christianity Today, Kevin Brown used the Institute for Faith Work & Economics (IFWE) “I, Smartphone” video and the “conflict mineral” coltan to introduce his topic.

Brown is a supporter of the market system.  He eloquently provides a utilitarian defense of markets. “Markets have enabled progress and prosperity far beyond what anyone even a century ago could have imagined. Productivity per person, an enhanced standard of living, and the incentive for innovation all trace back to the forces of the market system (the producers, buyers, sellers, and others who participate in the creation, distribution, and use of a product or service). A well-functioning market offers lower prices and higher quality products.” After an excellent summary of some Christian economists’ evaluations of and brief recommendations for improving  market outcomes, Brown concludes “Thus Christians can be actively involved in shaping the regulatory environment and the moral and ethical social conventions that allow for healthier markets.”

While the article itself is well done, I find the connection of IFWE’s I, Smartphone and coltan illustrative of a criticism of markets that is dubious at best. The connection is made between illegal and morally reprehensible behavior and free markets assuming that the market environment necessarily caused the reprehensible behavior. This is a non sequitur. Because the illegal behavior happened in a nation that is loosely connected to the global economy, does not mean the economy caused the illegal behavior. Because Smart phones are traded in the global economy and use a mineral that is mined in the developing world does not mean illegal and reprehensible behavior associated with the mining of the mineral are a direct result of either smart phones or the global economy. In this instance, the illegal and reprehensible behavior are connected with the collapse of viable government and breakdown of the rule of law.  Government failed in it’s God ordained function to restrain evil. A functioning government and a stable rule of law are necessary for a smoothly functioning market. We might argue in this specific instance that very little free market activity was taking place.

Brown’s argument is that smart phones are a very important commodity in the global economy and that a necessary component of smart phones requires coltan. According to ABC News, “Columbite-tantalite — coltan for short — is a dull metallic ore found in major quantities in the eastern areas of Congo. When refined, coltan becomes metallic tantalum, a heat-resistant powder that can hold a high electrical charge. These properties make it a vital element in creating capacitors, the electronic elements that control current flow inside miniature circuit boards. Tantalum capacitors are used in almost all cell phones, laptops, pagers and many other electronics.”

One of the largest sources of coltan is the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). There are documented cases of the illegal smuggling of coltan from the DRC. According to Brown, the illegal smuggling is an “externality” of the global economy. An externality is an effect of a market transaction on a nonconsenting third-party. All transactions have some externality effects. Externalities may be either positive or negative. If I buy flowers and place them in my office and their aroma drifts into the hall and you walk by and appreciate the smell you would enjoy a positive externality. If you walk by and find the smell offensive there would be a negative externally. By walking by my office you are a nonconsenting third-party to the economic transaction of my purchase of the flowers.

The situation of illegal extraction and smuggling of coltan is not a good example of an externality. In fact, the illegal extraction and smuggling represents a deep rooted example of human sin. While some of the participants in the extraction and smuggling of the mineral are undoubtedly coerced to participate in the mining and shipment of coltan against their will, the basic extraction and smuggling is by someone who’s directly involved in the economic exchange. So it’s not really an externality.

Nor is this free-market activity. The DRC has seen war and Civil War for several decades. While the war was technically over in 2003,  ramifications of the war are still evident today. “Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and their proxy militias are the primary exploiters of coltan in the Congo.” (Friends of the Congo). The worst atrocities are a direct result of the warring factions in the DRC. There is no stable government to establish the rule of law and hence there is no functioning market economy. There may be anarchy, but no market economy. What occurred in the DRC is colossal government failure, not market failure.

Brown says: “market externalities like rape and murder give us Christians reason to pause.” If rape and murder were market externalities, believers and nonbelievers alike would have reason to pause. Rape and murder emanate from the fallen human heart, not any economic system. While good government can help restrain sin (Romans 13:4), sinful human beings create, execute, and are ultimately responsible and accountable for their behavior. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness,slander.” (Matthew 15:19). “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:14, 15).