Father Gregory Boyle developed the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program based on the belief that jobs stop bullets. Following his lead, US policymakers must learn to appreciate the broader meaning of work as they navigate uncertain economic waters, particularly the looming artificial-intelligence revolution.
WASHINGTON, DC – “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” So says Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. In May, Boyle was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. His belief in the importance of work offers lessons for economic policymakers.
I learned of Boyle about 15 years ago, long after he had becomean icon in Los Angeles and the social-justice community, while speaking with a Jesuit about the order’s charism “to see the world as their monastery.” I was deeply impressed by Boyle’s response to the heartbreaking gang violence he encountered as the pastor of the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles.
In 1988, Boyle founded Jobs for a Future (JFF) to help gang members who couldn’t secure employment due to their criminal history or tattoos. Members of his parish visited the factories surrounding the local housing projects and encouraged them to hire these young people. When no jobs were forthcoming, JFF started its own organizations to employ – and rehabilitate – gang members, building a childcare center and forming groups that performed landscaping and maintenance work, removed graffiti, and cleaned up neighborhoods.
These early efforts planted the seeds for Homeboy Industries, which was established in 1992 with a bakery across the street from the church. In the intervening years, it has grown to encompass nearly a dozen social enterprises, including Homegirl Café, an electronics-recycling business, and a catering company. These enterprises provide job training, but they also foster kinship and create safe communities.
Employment is often thought of as an income-generating activity, but Boyle’s mission serves as a reminder that it is much more than that. Work cultivates virtue by directing our passions to productive ends and reorienting us toward higher purposes, such as providing for our families and contributing to society. It also gives us a sense of identity – many of us are defined by what we do – and builds a society characterized by mutual contribution, dependence, and obligation.
In a market economy, every worker is an expert in his little corner of the shop and can make creative contributions accordingly. Making the best use of dispersed knowledge maximizes economic efficiency. As Friedrich von Hayek put it, “practically every individual has some advantage over all others because he possesses unique information of which beneficial use might be made, but of which use can be made only if the decisions depending on it are left to him or are made with his active cooperation.”
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Work is also deeply spiritual. Pope John Paul II wrote in Laborem Exercens that people are “called to work,” pointing to the very first pages of the Book of Genesis as “the source of [the Catholic Church’s] conviction that work is a fundamental dimension of human existence on earth.” Human beings are created in God’s image, he continued, and by carrying out God’s mandate to “subdue” and “dominate” the earth, they reflect “the very action of the Creator of the universe.”
Reflecting on the broader importance of work brings clarity to recent economic policy debates in the US. Increasing the minimum wage, for example, would give a raise to millions of middle-class workers but might also reduce employment by a few hundred thousand jobs. Similarly, expanding the earned-income tax credit would boost employment while costing American taxpayers a few billion dollars per year.
Whether one considers the benefits of these policies to be worth the costs largely depends on the value one assigns to having marginally more employment opportunities. Appreciating the broader meaning of work is crucial to making these judgments.
As US policymakers prepare for the disruption from the looming artificial-intelligence revolution, they need a north star. My suggestion is the principle that work is good, and that participation in economic life should be encouraged. This would clarify the value of specific policy proposals. For example, despite fears that AI will cause mass unemployment, a generous universal basic income should be avoided because it would discourage work. Policymakers should also steer clear of a “welfare for all” model for the middle class, for similar reasons.
But as AI technology advances, encouraging work may eventually require some radical policy changes. For example, to incentivize employment in a world with extremely capable machines, earnings subsidies may have to increase substantially and be made available to workers much higher up on the wage scale than is currently the case.
Father Boyle showed the power of jobs to stop bullets in Los Angeles’s gangland. Policymakers must now use that power to promote mass flourishing as they navigate a world with growing uncertainty and disruption.
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WASHINGTON, DC – “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” So says Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. In May, Boyle was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. His belief in the importance of work offers lessons for economic policymakers.
I learned of Boyle about 15 years ago, long after he had become an icon in Los Angeles and the social-justice community, while speaking with a Jesuit about the order’s charism “to see the world as their monastery.” I was deeply impressed by Boyle’s response to the heartbreaking gang violence he encountered as the pastor of the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles.
In 1988, Boyle founded Jobs for a Future (JFF) to help gang members who couldn’t secure employment due to their criminal history or tattoos. Members of his parish visited the factories surrounding the local housing projects and encouraged them to hire these young people. When no jobs were forthcoming, JFF started its own organizations to employ – and rehabilitate – gang members, building a childcare center and forming groups that performed landscaping and maintenance work, removed graffiti, and cleaned up neighborhoods.
These early efforts planted the seeds for Homeboy Industries, which was established in 1992 with a bakery across the street from the church. In the intervening years, it has grown to encompass nearly a dozen social enterprises, including Homegirl Café, an electronics-recycling business, and a catering company. These enterprises provide job training, but they also foster kinship and create safe communities.
Employment is often thought of as an income-generating activity, but Boyle’s mission serves as a reminder that it is much more than that. Work cultivates virtue by directing our passions to productive ends and reorienting us toward higher purposes, such as providing for our families and contributing to society. It also gives us a sense of identity – many of us are defined by what we do – and builds a society characterized by mutual contribution, dependence, and obligation.
In a market economy, every worker is an expert in his little corner of the shop and can make creative contributions accordingly. Making the best use of dispersed knowledge maximizes economic efficiency. As Friedrich von Hayek put it, “practically every individual has some advantage over all others because he possesses unique information of which beneficial use might be made, but of which use can be made only if the decisions depending on it are left to him or are made with his active cooperation.”
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The newest issue of our magazine, PS Quarterly: Age of Extremes, is here. To gain digital access to all of the magazine’s content, and receive your print copy, subscribe to PS Premium now.
Subscribe Now
Work is also deeply spiritual. Pope John Paul II wrote in Laborem Exercens that people are “called to work,” pointing to the very first pages of the Book of Genesis as “the source of [the Catholic Church’s] conviction that work is a fundamental dimension of human existence on earth.” Human beings are created in God’s image, he continued, and by carrying out God’s mandate to “subdue” and “dominate” the earth, they reflect “the very action of the Creator of the universe.”
Reflecting on the broader importance of work brings clarity to recent economic policy debates in the US. Increasing the minimum wage, for example, would give a raise to millions of middle-class workers but might also reduce employment by a few hundred thousand jobs. Similarly, expanding the earned-income tax credit would boost employment while costing American taxpayers a few billion dollars per year.
Whether one considers the benefits of these policies to be worth the costs largely depends on the value one assigns to having marginally more employment opportunities. Appreciating the broader meaning of work is crucial to making these judgments.
As US policymakers prepare for the disruption from the looming artificial-intelligence revolution, they need a north star. My suggestion is the principle that work is good, and that participation in economic life should be encouraged. This would clarify the value of specific policy proposals. For example, despite fears that AI will cause mass unemployment, a generous universal basic income should be avoided because it would discourage work. Policymakers should also steer clear of a “welfare for all” model for the middle class, for similar reasons.
But as AI technology advances, encouraging work may eventually require some radical policy changes. For example, to incentivize employment in a world with extremely capable machines, earnings subsidies may have to increase substantially and be made available to workers much higher up on the wage scale than is currently the case.
Father Boyle showed the power of jobs to stop bullets in Los Angeles’s gangland. Policymakers must now use that power to promote mass flourishing as they navigate a world with growing uncertainty and disruption.