There has been little good news in the last two weeks regarding the world’s economy. As shades of 1929 rise from the grave to haunt even the most stout hearted investor or broker, we missed a prodigy. That was the fact that two major figures made statements that make utter economic sense, yet are almost universally ignored.
The first came in an arena that is about as far removed from the ups and downs of economic cycles as can be. It was in Pope Benedict XVI’s opening statements to a synod of bishops in the Vatican. In his address he read from the Gospel of Mathew concerning the futility of building on sand. He said, “He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand.” Later he added that, “We are now seeing in the collapse of major banks that money vanishes, it is nothing. All these things that appear to be real are in fact secondary. Only God’s words are a solid reality.”
The Pope was conveying a spiritual message that has echoed true for millennia and yet is ignored even among the faithful. That is that what we perceive to be of value in our hurried lives is most often of the least permanence and worth. Regardless of what your personal faith is, if any, it is fair to say that no faith or creed which espouses the material or wealth as the ultimate goal has long survived the trials of human experience.
It was during the Vice Presidential debate that Governor Sarah Palin threw out an easily overlooked statement that rung just as true as those words of the Pontiff. They are also as widely ignored.
In response to a question about the subprime mortgage meltdown and who was at fault Palin inserted the following. “Let’s do what our parents told us before we probably even got that first credit card. Don’t live outside of our means. We need to make sure that as individuals we’re taking personal responsibility through all of this.”
We have all most likely heard this same advice from family many times. The problem is that it was about the only time I recall hearing such a sentiment from a politician throughout this whole debacle. Remember George Bush’s statement after September 11 to go out and shop? How about the “Ownership Society”? The whole smorgasbord of easy credit that has been available up until now has been based on the opposite premise of what the governor is talking about. Our system is based on living beyond our means and it is not sustainable.
We have simple statements here from two very different people with utterly different tasks. One is spiritual, one temporal. One from a mother of five from a frontier area in a political role. The other from a celibate church leader in the Eternal City in a theological role. Yet the messages are of a common theme.
From the Pope we have the everlasting wisdom that wealth is not everlasting. The pursuit of endless gain in this world is rarely successful in the ways we think it might be. Of course there are plenty of people who do very well, make a lot of money and keep it. Many of them do well by their families and leave them in better conditions than they found them. When those goals though become more for the sake of more something is lost. A blindness to what matters most and, more importantly, what will last longest sets in for those who’s greed becomes their driving force.
On the same tone is Palin’s simple reminder of what we have all already heard. When we attempt to gain it all right now, before we have earned it we are in more danger of loosing it than ever. Young people are the most commented on about living beyond their means. They are not alone however. You do not have to look far to see individuals and families nearing retirement age that have lived beyond their means for so long, and owe so much that retirement becomes and ever fading dream.
When we make wealth the core of our world, and demand it all now so that we live on the high wire of a thin credit line, disaster looms. For years examples of individuals or families that suffered tragedy from this mindset have abounded. Now however, we have the phenomenon of businesses, corporations, governments, even whole societies living according to these flawed precepts of more and more now.
The results are all around us. We live in a world that functions on what it does not yet and may never have. Our economy is a paper empire. Is it likely to change due to this downturn? I doubt it. The habits are far too ingrained and far too much is invested in keeping us all out on a limb and running just to stand still financially. As long as we base all success on wealth and demand that wealth before we have earned it we are stuck in this cycle. I just found it refreshing for someone to stand up and say it, even if no one was listening.
von Rum
The Daily Rum 