NT Wright on the economic failure
I've been reading about the Wall Street thing in the news, of course, but I don't understand economics so haven't posted anything on it. But today I came across Bishop of Durham NT Wright's answer at On Faith to the question, Are the economy's recent financial failures also moral failures? Are credit and debt religious issues? Do you have faith in the economy?. Trust him to drag in TS Eliot and CS Lewis :) ........
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Economy Built on Wishes and Wants
As someone with a close family member right at the heart of the current crisis -- he is quite senior in Lehmans and has hardly slept for the last month -- I have taken a close interest in this. No, I don't 'have faith in the economy'; my experience of talking to economists both in Oxford and in London is that, like weather forecasters, though they can tell you how past patterns have worked and what the immediate future is likely to bring, they don't control the weather and are regularly taken by surprise. Frequently the large-scale banking and international finance system, when you ask key questions to key people, looks remarkably like a hugely complex system of betting on horse-races and staying sufficiently ahead of the game so that the by the time the problems strike you are several moves ahead on another deal.
Two generations ago wry commentators like T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis noted that in the Bible and the Koran it is forbidden to use money to make money, i.e. to take interest -- and that our entire modern western economy, and now more or less the global economy, is built on that system and nothing else. Ironically (in view of the moral posturing of 'the West' against Islam in recent years) some countries, certainly my own in recent legislation, have quietly made provision for Muslims to 'do business' in different ways so they can keep (a version of) their laws. Nobody has suggested making similar provisions for Jews or Christians.
All this makes me reflect that it is highly likely that there are sicknesses of various sorts quite deep within our present culture and that we shouldn't be surprised when, from time to time, they burst out the way they are doing right now. Of course, there are the daily and hourly sicknesses which result from the arrangements put in place in the mid-1940s -- the Bretton Woods agreement and cognate measures -- which were designed to make the western economies flourish at the expense of the third world, and are continuing to do so. I get howls of protest whenever I mention the problem of global debt, but I have yet to see actual good arguments for a system where the rich get richer at the expense of the poor. And though there are many fine, honest and generous people working in the system, it may well be that the system as a whole needs a much more critical examination, by those qualified to do so, than most Christians have dared to offer. Certainly the way the 'debt culture' has spiraled -- remember that credit cards and the like are a very, very recent invention, and that the idea of 'taking the waiting out of wanting' was, until very recently, widely regarded as a sign of moral degeneracy -- is a major index of societal ill-health, in which, as with lotteries, the poor are effectively taxed by the rich while the rich tell them 'aren't you having fun!'.
This isn't a diagnosis; it's a signpost towards one. Nor do I have a remedy lying ready to hand. What does 'repent and believe' mean in this situation? I'm not exactly sure; but I do know that it will involve cheerful generosity. Giving money away is the first great step towards dethroning it as an idol. As long as we are a culture of mammon-worshippers we can expect, quite literally, to pay the price that idols always demand.
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*************************
Economy Built on Wishes and Wants
As someone with a close family member right at the heart of the current crisis -- he is quite senior in Lehmans and has hardly slept for the last month -- I have taken a close interest in this. No, I don't 'have faith in the economy'; my experience of talking to economists both in Oxford and in London is that, like weather forecasters, though they can tell you how past patterns have worked and what the immediate future is likely to bring, they don't control the weather and are regularly taken by surprise. Frequently the large-scale banking and international finance system, when you ask key questions to key people, looks remarkably like a hugely complex system of betting on horse-races and staying sufficiently ahead of the game so that the by the time the problems strike you are several moves ahead on another deal.
Two generations ago wry commentators like T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis noted that in the Bible and the Koran it is forbidden to use money to make money, i.e. to take interest -- and that our entire modern western economy, and now more or less the global economy, is built on that system and nothing else. Ironically (in view of the moral posturing of 'the West' against Islam in recent years) some countries, certainly my own in recent legislation, have quietly made provision for Muslims to 'do business' in different ways so they can keep (a version of) their laws. Nobody has suggested making similar provisions for Jews or Christians.
All this makes me reflect that it is highly likely that there are sicknesses of various sorts quite deep within our present culture and that we shouldn't be surprised when, from time to time, they burst out the way they are doing right now. Of course, there are the daily and hourly sicknesses which result from the arrangements put in place in the mid-1940s -- the Bretton Woods agreement and cognate measures -- which were designed to make the western economies flourish at the expense of the third world, and are continuing to do so. I get howls of protest whenever I mention the problem of global debt, but I have yet to see actual good arguments for a system where the rich get richer at the expense of the poor. And though there are many fine, honest and generous people working in the system, it may well be that the system as a whole needs a much more critical examination, by those qualified to do so, than most Christians have dared to offer. Certainly the way the 'debt culture' has spiraled -- remember that credit cards and the like are a very, very recent invention, and that the idea of 'taking the waiting out of wanting' was, until very recently, widely regarded as a sign of moral degeneracy -- is a major index of societal ill-health, in which, as with lotteries, the poor are effectively taxed by the rich while the rich tell them 'aren't you having fun!'.
This isn't a diagnosis; it's a signpost towards one. Nor do I have a remedy lying ready to hand. What does 'repent and believe' mean in this situation? I'm not exactly sure; but I do know that it will involve cheerful generosity. Giving money away is the first great step towards dethroning it as an idol. As long as we are a culture of mammon-worshippers we can expect, quite literally, to pay the price that idols always demand.
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posted by crystal | 11:23 AM
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