I agree giving money to a homeless person may not be the best way to help that person because that person now has cash, but no accountability to this new capital. Accountability is something America is founded upon, just look to the way the government is set up. Three branches each trying to hold one another accountable to the others. Congress makes laws, Presidents enforce laws, Courts interpret laws. No one branch can do it all.
And yet, when it comes to commerce in America we seem totally against any sort of accountability to the Market. It is as though the only thing holding the Market accountable is individuals. But this is only possible if individuals are rational.
People are not, I am not, always rational.
I appreciate the Libertarian movement, but I wonder who is holding the Market accountable?
This report from New York Times is a series of videos talking about the way Private Equity Deal makers take advantage of the market for gains for the investors but many times at the great expense of the long term health of the company and the employees.
How Private Equity Deal makers Can Win While Their Companies Lose
The betrayal of the biblical call to conversion has occurred across the theological spectrum. The gospel must be preached in the context. We live in one of the most self-centered cultures in history. Our economic system is the social rationalization of personal selfishness. Self-fulfillment and individual advancement have become our chief goals. The leading question of the times is, “How can I be happy and satisfied?” Not surprisingly, our self-centered culture has produced a self-centered religion. Preoccupation with self dominates the spirit of the age and shapes the character of religion. Modern evangelism has played right along with this central theme. The most common question in evangelism today is, “What can Jesus do for me?”
The gospel message has been molded to suit an increasingly narcissistic culture. Conversion is proclaimed as the road to self-realization. Whether through evangelical piety or liberal therapy, the role of religion is presented as a way to help us uncover out human potential – our potential for personal, social and business success, that is. We are told Jesus is here to help us to do better that which we are already doing. Jesus doesn’t change our lives, he improves them. Conversion is just for ourselves, not the world. We ask how Jesus can fulfill our lives, not how we might serve the kingdom.
Italics were added as this is the line I deeply resonated with.
I do not know about you, but I desire a Jesus that changes my life. I desire a Jesus who calls me to turn everything I know upside down. I desire a Jesus to disrupt the status quo. I desire a Jesus to lead the world to an uncomfortable place, so we might discover the Kingdom.
I desire a Jesus whom I can work for and work with.
Is there any sort of theological discussion you can think of in response to the “Dollar Auction“? A short explanation taken from Freakonomics blog:
A teacher auctions off a $20 bill to the highest bidder. Bids have to be in round dollar amounts, but the twist is that both the highest and the second-highest bidder have to pay.
When uninitiated students start to play this game, someone rushes to bid $3 or $4 dollars for the prospect of winning $20, and then other students respond by bidding up the price.
But then something amazing happens as the auction price starts approaching $20. The remaining bidders realize that they could end up having to pay a lot of money and not win the auction.
Imagine that you had bid $19, and another bidder upped the ante by bidding $20. What would you do? Is it better to bid $21 for a $20 prize or to remain silent and pay $19 for nothing?
What starts off as a feel-good exercise to take advantage of a generous professorial offer suddenly becomes a sickening war of attrition, where the last two bidders pay more than what the prize is worth. These games routinely end with the winning bid being 50 percent higher than the value of the prize. Since both the highest and second-highest bidders pay, this means that the professor rakes in about three times the amount being auctioned.
I am thinking of things like being duped or ‘sold’ on an idea which seems like a good thing but in reality is a loose-loose situation for all involved. Perhaps this game could accent how the world works and the church’s role to call out the injustice in the systems which are before us?
For sometime now I have been fascinated with Micorcredit. According to Wikipedia Microcredit:
“is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not considered bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of a wider range of financial services to the very poor.”
I know Kiva.org has been around for a while now and it is nothing new, but it is something which I have begun to seriously consider as a way of shifting from acts of mercy to acts of justice. At Kiva.org you can lend money to entrepreneurs whom you like and over time the loan you give (as small as $25) is repaid which you can then re-lend, give to Kiva or keep for yourself.
It is my hope that one day the church could get into microcredit at the local level. It is the whole give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish idea. Microcredit is an easy way for people like you and me to allow people to learn to fish!
While walking through the woods, I came up to the banks of a river. I saw a man struggling with the fast currant and about to drown. I quickly dove in and brought that man safely to the bank. At that instant my attention was drawn again to the river where I noticed a woman struggling and about to drown. I dove in and brought her safely to the riverbank. I wondered why this was happening. Why were these people falling into the river? It was then when I noticed that the bridge above the river had several missing planks. As people walked across, they tried to avoid the spot with the missing planks, but some couldn’t and they fell down into the river. I realized that if I replaced the missing and broken planks, I could prevent something bad from happening or at least I could prevent it from getting worse. Therefore, by replacing the missing and broken planks, I have committed an act of social justice.
