But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 4:24).
The 2011 Forbes billionaire list breaks all records: 1,210 billionaires with a combined worth of $4.5 trillion U.S. That is 214 more than last year, but doesn’t include tyrants like Mubaruk, Gadhafi and a host of crime bosses around the world.
Some hold these fortunate few up as trophies of unfettered capitalism and thank them for the jobs they create, and in a few cases even for their substantial contributions to charity.
Others find this trend troubling. To them it seems so incongruent in a world where one billion persons live on less than two dollars a day and 35,000 starve to death daily. If half of the $4.5 trillion in question were distributed to the poorest one billion people in the world, their average income would jump from two to eight dollars a day. What a difference that would make!
I know it is not as simple as that. But, given these stark realities, is it not time to begin imagining an economic system without such obvious injustices and inequalities? Francis Russell, a columnist in the Winnipeg Free Press, recently suggested it would be helpful to shift our focus from poverty to inequality. She argues that, for too many, poverty implies charity as the ultimate solution. However the term inequality pushes us in the direction of genuine social and economic change.
Growing global inequality simply is not sustainable. Justice Louis Brandeis, who served on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1916 to 1939 once said, “We can have democracy in a country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
In 1973, American billionaire, David Rockefeller, founded the secretive and exclusive Trilateral Commission that argued that “an excess of democracy was not good for business.” Samuel P. Huntington, a member of this club, noted that apathy and non-participation in public affairs create the best climate for the rich to get richer. That way the wealthy and powerful can grab what they want before the masses are aware of what is happening.
Russell claims that, “Huntington’s dream is democracy’s nightmare. The rich, particularly in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, are becoming ever more fabulously rich, the middle class – the bastion of democracy – is in full retreat, while the poor are becoming ever poorer and there are ever more of them.”
For the past 35 years or so the corporate world – hand-in-glove with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – have set the stage for massive inequalities around the globe. First bad debts were virtually forced on emerging economies. Then in exchange for debt relief they insisted on a three-fold solution: privatization, deregulation and reduced social spending. This created a perfect environment for well-positioned persons to reap whirlwind profits on the backs of the poor.
But there is a limit to which inequality can be stretched. As we are witnessing in the Middle East, sooner or later the masses rise up to try to even the score. Eventually the super rich have no place to hide from hungry and angry masses.
But even in places where the masses are unsuccessful in righting this wrong, everyone – including the wealthy, suffer. That is because all the pathologies that grow in unequal societies – crime, violence, poverty, illiteracy, homelessness and disease – eventually begin to affect the wealthy, one way or another. The comfortable seat at the top of the pile gets more and more uncomfortable as disparity increases. And peace and security begins to erode at the edges.
The dream that is gaining momentum all over the world is for a society in which no one has too little and no one too much. In spite of tremendous challenges along the way, this dream can become a reality. But it will require all of us to transition to a sustainable lifestyle; one that lightens our footprint on the environment and considers the welfare of all global citizens.
A question I keep asking myself is what role the Christian community should play in bringing this dream to fruition. In the circles in which I move I find at least three responses to this question.
First, some Christians maintain, that since we are the “King’s Kids,” all the wealth and luxury at the top of the pile is our right. We are special people, chosen by God to be showered with only the best this world can offer. One sermon I heard a few years ago had an interesting twist of logic. The speaker noted that in the U.S.A. only two percent of the population is Jewish but that they hold 50% of its wealth. Then the clincher: Since by faith we are children of Abraham, we can by faith lay hold of that massive wealth and live a life of luxury because we deserve it!
Second, some Christians who find the first option repugnant, as I do, are bewildered by the fact that it seems ever more difficult to maintain a middle-class lifestyle. They watch in dismay as wealth continues to trickle upward instead of downward as they have been taught to expect. They work harder to earn more but are frustrated that they are gradually slipping into the territory of the poor. God doesn’t seem to notice and they just don’t know what to do.
But some Christians I know have become proactive in the face of growing inequities in the world. Even as they are moving toward “voluntary simplicity” which finds joy in the simple things of life, they advocate openly for a more just society in which greater equality exists among global citizens – allowing for at least basic human needs for the poorest peoples of the world.
This latter position is where I think God would have Christians position themselves. Mark me down as one who at least is attempting to transition toward this orientation.
