The Way Out: An Analysis
In his book, Rediscovering Values, Jim Wallis’s blames what he calls the Great Recession on three philosophies that we as a society have bought into: “Greed is Good,” “It’s All About Me,” and “I Want It Now.” While ignoring a great opportunity to discuss what about the institutional structures of our society promote such excessive greediness (the Federal Reserve System), and what facilitates such artificial booms that create the illusion that “I want it now” can be facilitated (again, the Fed), Wallis ignores all this and places the blame on greedy people making decisions on Wall Street. While I believe that Wallis is hitting the target on most fronts, it would be better if he could take better aim and hit the bulls eye. The target is good, and needs to be shot at, but the bulls eye is still seemingly out of focus for Wallis.
So when he gets to Part 4, “The Way Out,” he spends three chapters (which will be condensed for review here instead of each chapter as a post) countering the above three philosophies with the following three:
- Enough is Enough
- We’re In It Together
- The Seventh-Generation Mindset
Enough is Enough
When somebody tells me they believe individuals ought to live economically with a philosophy that “enough is enough,” and not be driven by consuming more and more in order to find happiness, I would gladly be behind them shouting the same message. It is indeed the case that we often live with more than we need, whether we do so to fill a void or just out of a habit. It’s a damaging to live by the “I need more to make me happy” mentality, and so trading it for being satisfied with whatever it is that we have (especially those of us with much) is a good thing.
As far as this goes, Wallis is fine. But Wallis often speaks from the perspective of a collectivist, and so uses some quotes from many centuries ago to get the reader into believing the myth that when some people have more, other people have less because of it. While this may have been true in mercantilist and pre-mercantilist societies, in a market economy this isn’t the case. Unfortunately our country has shifted back toward some getting rich at the expense of others, but Wallis misses yet again the opportunity to explain to us what institution makes this possible.
We’re In It Together
Generosity goes a long way, especially when it is shared generosity. This is essentially Wallis’s point in this chapter, where we shed ourselves of an “It’s All About Me” attitude. Using examples of local and community banks that did not make unethical loans, and are doing well during this recession, Wallis comes very close to what I’ve been looking for in this entire book:
Markets will always have ups and downs, bubbles will build and burst, business cycles will swing up and back down.
What? Markets will always have ups and downs? Bubbles will burst? Excellent admission. But here’s my question: isn’t this a great opportunity to go (even briefly) into explaining that it doesn’t have to be this way, that economic growth can be steady and stable on a gold standard without a central bank? You’d think, since Wallis is very much against “societal evils” (which he decries in Part 1). Unfortunately, here’s all we’ll hear from Wallis about business cycles:
It is beyond the scope of this book to delve into the difficult issues of who gets bailed out and who doesn’t or the nature of business cycles, but it is clear that we must continue to ask questions about the [I'll Be Gone] “business as usual” mentality.
So if “business as usual” must be questioned (and I wholeheartedly agree), and “business as usual” is what got us into this mess, THEN WHY ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH DOES YOU BOOK NOT HAVE ENOUGH SPACE TO TALK ABOUT BUSINESS CYCLES AND THE CENTRAL BANKING SYSTEM!?!?
The Seventh-Generation Mindset
Long-term thinking has always been a wise choice for businesses, and it is generally a wise choice for individuals and other organizations and groups. Long-term thinking and planning often plays an important part in economic growth, personal growth, and spiritual growth. And while short-term thinking, with CEOs and their golden parachutes “winning” and most of us on Main Street “losing” (by way of reduced investment fund values) has caused a tremendous problem for our economy, Wallis returns to one of the fundamentals of the Christian faith: ethical stewardship of resources. Reminding us of the Genesis 2:15 “tend and keep” command, Wallis implores us to think about stewardship as not only about the environment, but as an initiative to ensure that poor people have enough, and that future generations have enough.
Not to beat a dead horse, but maybe it would be helpful to ask the question, “What makes such short-term thinking profitable for businesses? What could eliminate such unsustainable decision making?” And while we’re asking the question, “How will this affect us seven generations from now?” how about we question the warfare/welfare state’s massive debt accumulation that will not be repayable for at least that number of generations at the current rate.
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