economic insecurity

listening to the news is depressing.  everyday it seems some other big business is counting countless jobs. everyone wants a bailout.  almost everyday the stock market tumbles.  more and more houses are up for foreclosure.  the job market is getting very competitive.  i was talking to a guy who posted a nine hour a week job for $10 dollars an hour on craigslist and he had over 50 people submit resumes in the first hour. things are a mess.

what makes me more sad is the answer.  on meet the press last sunday, thomas friedman said the answer is to get people to spend again.  his answer echos a plethora of economists.  we need people to spend money to get out of this recession.

but why do we want more people to spend?  the average person has over $8,500 of debt on their credit cards.  most college graduates have loans they are not able to pay.  and more and more people cannot even provide for their families.  yet, we want people to spend, spend and spend.  

some people/ecomists are getting excited it is christmas because that means americans will spend more.  i personally hate the thought of the average family, or any family in fact, this holiday season instead of celebrating the birth of jesus (who was homeless and had others pay his bills), worry about making their kids happy by buying them things.  how depressing is it to tell your kids you probably cant buy them most of what they want even though many of their friends at school will get something.  why does purchasing equal love so often?

the united states america is supposedly the most “christian” in the world but how can anyone say that when our economic ethics are so distant from what christ says about money.  most americans dont save.  most do not give.  we spend what we do not have.  we gauge success by material wealth.  the united states has five percent of the world’s people and consumes forty percent of the resources.  

we are a culture of consumption and consumerism.  i hope that these times will continue to expose how money is security and a god to so many people.  and i pray this economic crisis cultivates a dialogue about really matters.  how money is to serve us and not us serve money.  where we realize how much of our emotions are affected by money and how money dictates what we do with our time and who we become. 

this christmas, lets not buy what we can’t afford.  lets not buy because we are expected to buy.  lets instead give a true expression of how we feel about people, not one we wrap in wealth.  but a gift wrapped in from the heart.