Plasmas, baches, and saving behaviours

David Van Beima wrote an article for Time magazine in October 2008 entitled Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess (Van Beima, 2008). The New York Times reported that the city of Cleveland, Ohio sued 21 banks because of the abundance of subprime mortgages that were sold in their city (Maag, 2008). There seems to be a lot of finger pointing going on, particularly in the world of economics and finance. We’re faced with the massive global failures in our financial systems and free market economies. As many as 20 million people may be added to the unemployment rolls worldwide before the ‘crisis’ is over (Newstalk ZB, 2008). The finger pointers include those who have lost their homes due to mortgage sales; those who have lost their retirement due to dropping stock prices; and governments who sat back and allowed it to happen in the first place. In all this finger pointing – in all the ranting, raving, and analysis that has been done – we hear very little about the need for us to adjust our individual and collective behaviours.

Micro and macro economics involve various systems. Little changes in one place can mean big changes in another. Our individual and collective behaviours have added up to the mess that we’re now in. Has greed been involved? Yes. Is there justification for $500 million compensation packages? Probably not. At the same time, however, there were those who took out mortgages when they knew they couldn’t afford them. There were others who invested in things that they really didn’t understand. And even though we intuitively know that in all things it is wise for there to be a sense of balance, our equilibrium was out of whack in global proportions.

As the current economic downturn is expected to go well into 2009 and perhaps early 2010 there will be ample time for us to reflect (mostly because we’ll be spending less at the malls and shops). While we cool off from buying house, going on shopping sprees with next year’s wages, and buying big screen plasma TVs just because everyone else is, let’s consider the following:

How will I as a Christian change my behaviours?

What will I do that will impact the global market and the economy?

How will I help to create jobs that will lead to growth?

How will I partake in innovation and other things that will help build an economy?

How will I as an individual in society save, spend and use credit responsibly?

We need to ask all of these questions individually while we are pointing fingers at those who have made obscene amounts of money over the last several years during the economic boom. The economic and financial systems we have are not perfect. But these systems are run and managed by individuals. The systems may need to be adjusted – but so too our behaviours and attitudes. I’m not advocating poverty nor am I advocating prosperity. Rather I would argue for a balance and a renewal to our commitment to find the voice that we as Christians should have and must have in a society that serves mammon, not God.

There have been few Christian voices that have called out in the desert. Many of those that I’ve read point to the top. They appear to absolve the individual of any responsibility for the current situation and suggest that we leave it to God to sort out. As we enter into a time at the end/beginning of the year, it is a good time for us to stop and pause. How have our lives been different from those around us who don’t know and follow Jesus? In what ways can we speak out of our own experiences of God’s faithfulness and his blessings in, on and around our lives? I think we should ponder these things in the hopes that we as a Christian community (both micro and macro) might be able to speak about the experience that we have, but more than that, that we might be able to demonstrate the experience we have in the way we live our lives – not just on Sunday, but every day of the week.

Maag, C. (2008). Cleveland Sues 21 Lenders Over Subprime Mortgages [Electronic Version]. The New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2008 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/us/12cleveland.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=cleveland%20sues%2021%20lenders&st=cse.

Newstalk ZB. (2008). Global unemployed to rise by 20 million [Electronic Version]. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 26 November 2008 from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10544621.

Van Beima, D. (2008). Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess [Electronic Version]. Time, October 3. Retrieved 25 November 2008 from http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1847053,00.html.