"Greed is good." (1987 film "Wall Street")
"Whoever loves money, never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never
satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless." (Ecclesiastes 5:10)
The financial "crisis" on Wall Street has provided another teachable moment.
It turns out that greed is not good after all.
While the media and politicians blame the usual suspects, greed, like
illicit sex, is not held in copyright by either party or political
persuasion.
Barack Obama partially and predictably blamed the Bush administration, but
it was the policies of the Clinton administration (as detailed in the Sept.
15 issue of Investors Business Daily) that sowed the seeds for the subprime
mortgage collapse.
John McCain wants more regulations. What McCain should be demanding is an
investigation, especially of those members of Congress who failed to provide
oversight. It also wouldn't hurt to recommend more self-control and an
embrace of the Puritan ethic of living within one's means.
Modern Western culture has been built on the success ethic, which says the
acquisition of material wealth produces happiness and contentment and that
the value of a life is to be measured not by one's character, but the size
of his bank account, the square footage of his home, the cost of his clothes
and the cars in his garage. The Puritan Thomas Watson addressed this notion
when he said, "Blessedness ... does not lie in the acquisition of worldly
things. Happiness cannot by any art of chemistry be extracted here."
Christianity Today magazine noted in a 1988 article, "The Puritan Critique
of Modern Attitudes Toward Money": "American culture has been strangely
enamored of the image of Œthe self-made person' - the person who becomes
rich and famous through his or her own efforts. The idea of having status
handed over as a gift does not appeal to such an outlook. Yet the Puritans
denied that there can even be such a thing as a self-made person. Based on
an ethic of grace, Puritanism viewed prosperity solely as God's gift."
The writer might have added that prosperity should not be seen as an end,
but a means. Throughout Scripture, people are warned that money is a false
god that leads to destruction. Wealth is best used when it becomes a river,
not a reservoir; when it blesses and encourages others and does not solely
feed one's personal empire.