Contentent Equals Recession

Well, any day now I should get my tax relief check. I don’t begrudge the people who hatched this plan though it seems very shallow and superficial. Mine will go right into paying off a small part of a line of credit. Sorry, no economic stimulus from me.

This whole “economic stimulus package” deal has brought back into my mind one of my greatest disappointments with the present administration, which really is a disappointment with our culture, and points to one reason that it is in decline.

When, after 9/11 we were exhorted as “patriots” not to let the terrorists cause us to be afraid or to change our way of life, and instead show them how undeterred we were and go "shop until we drop," well, my heart sank. Here, in the face of what I believe was a real war and a real enemy, we’re challenged not to sacrifice or volunteer but to shop. Well, it trivialized the whole deal.

As a Christian pastor I have often said to my congregation that if Christians in the United States were to hear and listen to their own Scriptures the nation would almost certainly enter into recession. Our economy is built upon the foundational principle of normal everyday people being discontent with what they have and thus spending money on what they don’t need.

What if, I wonder, those who profess to be Christians really listened to and heeded words such as the following:

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrew 13:5).

“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (I Timothy 6:6-10).

"Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?" For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:31-33)

So imagine people refusing to buy what they don’t need, keeping things longer without upgrading or trading in, living on less, doing without, living in smaller houses, driving smaller cars, God forbid, not even having the full cable package, and, gasp, even saving some money and having more money to give away to others in need. The economy would tank.

But in the end we would be stronger and better off I think. I'm tired of the trivialization of life by those who profit by creating a sense of discontentedness, these drug dealers and pushers selling the rush that comes with imagining and buying shiny new things.

Enough is enough already.

I think we the American people, despite the growing demand for oil in China and India, could impact the price of oil by buying less of it. But we’re drunk on it. We can’t stop. We scream and yell at the big bad oil companies, and maybe they are, but we can’t let ourselves off the hook. We the people have power if we would use it. We could buy less.

We scream and yell at the big bad mortgage companies and banks for letting us borrow more than we should. Well, we don’t have to borrow to the limit of what we are allowed by the banks. They tell me I could afford a $350,000 house. Are you kidding? Are they crazy?

I don’t know much about monetary policy but I would imagine that our dollar would be stronger if we all saved more money and borrowed less.

I am one of those folks right in the economic “class” that Barach Obama likes to talk about. Even doing pretty well I have a bunch of kids and we have incurred a lot of medical debt. I am thankful I have insurance or we’d be really sunk. I realize that when it comes to medical policy normal supply and demand rules don’t apply, since the doctors and insurance companies in some ways both control supply and dictate demand. But even here we the people are not helpless. If we got serious about how we’re killing ourselves with obesity and tobacco and sugar and lack of exercise, and if we ourselves took more responsibility for preventative care, we could take back some power in the supply/demand monopoly held by the power brokers of the medical world.

And back to contentment. There is a joy that comes with living within one’s means, a great sense of satisfaction. We’ve lost that joy. We need to reclaim it.

We’re not lab rats and Pavlovian dogs. We don’t have to say “how high” when the merchants of discontent say “jump.” We need to tell them to go to hell.

We the ordinary American people have power; let’s use it. We control more than meets the eye. Let’s tell Madison Avenue where to stick it and start living like we are responsible and free moral agents.

I know, we the people can’t by ourselves allocate billions of dollars for R&D for alternative energy. We can't build refineries. We can't do a lot of things. There are things only elected officials can do. But we can send pretty powerful signals, not just by words and votes, but even more perhaps by actions.

When patriotism is reduced to “shopping” we’re in deep trouble. Enough is enough. Let’s give ourselves a bitter pill of a good recession on purpose. We’ll get through it. On the other side we’ll be stronger if in fact we have taken back more power and responsibility.

So, damn the torpedoes, let's swallow the bitter pill together. We'll be better off in the long run.