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Interesting Development in Religion & Economics

 
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Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 4:17 pm    Post subject: Interesting Development in Religion & Economics Reply with quote

A religious response to the financial crisis


"The foreclosure crisis has become both a personal and a pastoral issue for us, and we are struggling to make sense of the fundamental unfairness that underlies it. The banks and other financial institutions whose behavior is most responsible for this crisis have been saved from failure by the American taxpayers, while many of those least responsible are losing jobs and homes...

More and more people are coming to understand that underlying the economic crisis is a values crisis, and that any economic recovery must be accompanied by a moral recovery. We have been asking the wrong question: When will the financial crisis end? The right question is: How will it change us? This could be a moment to reexamine the ways we measure success, do business and live our lives; a time to renew spiritual values and practices such as simplicity, patience, modesty, family, friendship, rest and Sabbath.

Moving forward, I hope local congregations and national denominations alike will begin reflecting on where they keep their money and how their investments reflect their faith. I envision congregations creating checklists to evaluate who they do business with, and national church bodies considering where they should invest their pension funds...

The banks say they are "too big to fail." So let's make them smaller. We might finally get Wall Street's attention. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123101156.html
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Adventurer



Joined: 28 Jan 2006

PostPosted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, in Canada, Canadians didn't want certain Canadian banks to merge, and they protested against the merger. I forget which banks, and Prime Minister Jean Chretien went with the masses on that one. Canada doesn't have even close to the debt America has percentage wise, and America has what many Americans label a socialist system. I think the problem with the US, is that the corporations have way too much power, and the people and masses have been brainwashed to believe that the market capitalists out there should control everything in the economy. That's not democractic and can bring disaster to the country.
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Fox



Joined: 04 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:48 pm    Post subject: Re: Interesting Development in Religion & Economics Reply with quote

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
This could be a moment to reexamine the ways we measure success, do business and live our lives; a time to renew spiritual values and practices such as simplicity, patience, modesty, family, friendship, rest and Sabbath.


Excepting the Sabbath, these aren't spiritual values, they're simply values. As a non-spiritual individual I find value in all those things too. Even Sabbath could be construed in a non-spiritual sense; I think there are very good non-spiritual reasons for having at least one day a week free from labor. In fact, those very good non-spiritual reasons are probably the original reason for the Sabbath's inclusion in religion.

More patience in particular probably would probably benefit the average family quite a bit economically. People changing from a "buy it now on credit" to a more patient "save up until I can afford it" mindset alone would both effectively lower the price of consumer goods and effectively increase the spending power of the average family due to the elimination of interest payments on those goods, and that's just one small example.
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