Is Capitalism being corrected?
by JVS on Sep.17, 2008, under 2008, Sermons
Right now the media seems to be laying a lot of the ‘financial mess’ blame at the feet of Wall Street. I think this is a cop-out. While investment banks certainly play a big part in this debacle, they are not the only ones who are culpable. We all are…
As a consumer society who continually insists on ‘getting what we want’ – a new house we couldn’t afford in this case, we fuelled the housing bubble. As investors who continually insist on ‘getting what we want’ – ever higher rates of return (remember the ads? 18%, 21%?), we closed our eyes on the derivative deceptions that made up many recent investment products. As a government who continually insisted on ‘giving us what we want’ – eyes were closed to reasonable regulation, to the potential for greed driven excess. Why change a thing if everyone is happy?
What happening now is a bit of an indictment on the entire capitalist system (it’s extremes at least). A market driven by self interest will always risk exposure to self serving behaviour. This kind of behaviour will inevitably lead some to cross moral and ethical lines. The folks on Wall Street are poster boys in this regard, but what we see in them is a reflection of us.
We all want what we want (Woody Allen).
And sometimes wanting too much, too quickly, and too lavishly can lead to problems. The housing bubble is a symbol of an overly bloated society. The current financial hangover – when will this head splitting pain end? – is telling us something about our unhealthy consumption patterns. But will we listen?
Two days ago a Scotiabank economist said that these events are all about the “socialization of capitalism.” His comment reminded me of a sermon I preached on the Sub-prime mortgage crisis back in March. In my introduction I recalled a notion I’d had back when the Berlin Wall came down and communism collapsed,
“When communism collapsed a while ago, I remember thinking about God and how God in the bible would, over history, raise up nations and bring down and humble certain nations. And I thought, a morally bankrupt, atheistic social system with no democracy and no freedom; that couldn’t stand. Then I wondered if the same thing needed to happen, in some way, shape or form, for the other superpower’s worldview; for capitalism. Would the market economy’s downside – its shadow side – the places were we fall into greed and lust and gluttony and idolatry and all of the inequities that sometimes result from our system; would that be needing a correction as well?”
I wonder if this is that correction.
