Tag Archives: Capitalism
Christianity and Capitalism
There’s a wonderful graphical essay on Christianity and capitalism posted to The Nib, which you can read HERE.
The Winner
The United States just passed a massive spending bill to boost the tech industry (source). I thought the beauty of Capitalism was that the Free Market would take care of these things. I thought that a centralized economy was a bad thing. I must have it confused with something else. I wonder who will reap …
Contrast
“Mindfulness should guide all your actions and your spiritual endeavors. Whatever you do, always apply three essential points: undertake the action with the intention of doing so for the good of all beings; execute it with perfect concentration, free of attachment to concepts of subject, object, and action; and, finally, dedicate the merit you have …
Survey Says:
According to the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer, available HERE (PDF), Fifty-six per cent of the surveyed global population said capitalism in its current form does more harm than good in the world, and fifty-seven percent of respondents worry about losing the respect and dignity they once enjoyed in their country. Most respondents said that hard …
Hooks
Excerpted from the interview Capitalism is turning us into addicts posted at Vox.com: Sean Illing: Sure, everyone needs to eat, but not everyone needs to tweet or buy 13 pairs of sunglasses or own a closet of products that add nothing to their life apart from marking their identity and status for other people. These …
Tetris
Executives with multimillion-dollar stock packages often treat their employees like Tetris pieces, to be put into place as efficiently as possible, then promptly disposed of. That’s from an opinion piece about the video game industry Jason Schreier wrote for the New York Times (online HERE), but he could have been talking about almost anyplace.
The Outward Sign Of Inward Grace
In this excerpt from Americans: A Book of Lives, ©1946, Hermann Hagedorn describes the business environment of Theodore Roosevelt’s America: To these men the rapid development of the country seemed a definite good in itself and became, indeed, a kind of religion, not superseding so much as fulfilling the Christian principles on which most of …
Pinkos
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were …
Pillars of the Community
“To steal from a brother or sister is evil. To not steal from the institutions that are the pillars of the Pig Empire is equally immoral.” ~Abbie Hoffman The city in East Texas where I live has over 100,000 people, but we only have two grocery stores to choose from: Walmart, and Brookshire’s. Brookshire’s is …
Cargo Cult
Cat and Girl is on the web HERE. (If you’re not familiar with the term “cargo cult,” Wikipedia has a nice article HERE.)
“Potentially Damaging Productivity.”
It’s a real article, it’s a real quote: LINK
But
Ordinary Things is on the web HERE.
Resources
I saw a real change in this country when they changed the name from “Personnel Department” to “Human Resources.” That’s when we changed from being “persons” to be respected to “resources” to be exploited and discarded.
People
“Corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters. That matters because we don’t run this country for corporations, we run it for people.” ~Sen. Elizabeth Warren (via) I would argue that we’ve morphed …
Class and Warfare
When the Second World War broke out, the British government commissioned W. Somerset Maugham (who was then living in France) to interview military officials, politicians, and the general public to asses their moral and abilities. France fell much quicker than anyone expected, and Maugham was on one of the last boats out. When he got …
Share
“Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
Bees
“Not a single bee has ever sent you an invoice. And that is part of the problem – because most of what comes to us from nature is free, because it is not invoiced, because it is not priced, because it is not traded in markets, we tend to ignore it.” ~Pavan Sukhdev, author of …
Joe
One of Dick Clark’s dirty little secrets was that if you wanted to be on American Bandstand, you’d had to sign away half of your music rights to him. Half. You couldn’t go to a competitor. There wasn’t one. He was the only game in town, and if you were a young musician who wanted …
Overflow
“The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefiting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger – nothing ever comes out for the poor.” ~Pope Francis (source)
Abbie's Tree House 