By the Rev. Lauren R. Stanley “The Dow Jones fell 5 percent today …”
“Markets in Asia plummeted on news of …”
“Foreclosures hit a new high in …”
The credit crisis dominates our lives right now. Every day, there is more bad economic news, so much of which can be traced straight back to pure greed.
The subprime mortgage crisis set off much of the trouble here in the United States, both the selling of these mortgages to people who were not qualified financially, and the subsequent bundling and selling of these risky loans as investments.
One thing led to another, and voila! We have a recession that is spreading around the world in record time, threatening another Great Depression.
The crime in all this is the greed behind all of it. Not the greed of those who wanted to own their own homes; for the most part, many of the people who took these loans simply wanted a shot at the American Dream, and far too many of them were misled by those giving the loans. No, the greed here lies with those who made the loans knowing that they were predatory, and who then bundled them into investments wherein the investors were, seemingly cavalierly, gambling wildly with people’s lives.
Talking with some friends about this recently, I pointed out the worst tragedy of all:
Those who will suffer the most are those who are in the most need.
How so, my friends asked.
Well, if everyone in this country, the richest in the world, is worried about their money, never mind losing it hand over fist, if they fear for their jobs and their homes, they won’t be able to help those most in need. So the people with whom I serve in Sudan are going to be hurt the hardest.
How can I continue to buy medicine for people, for the women and children, with malaria and typhoid and diarrhea, the three biggest killers in Africa, if people in the United States aren’t able to help? I don’t buy medicine in Renk with my own money – I don’t have it. As a missionary of the Episcopal Church, I don’t receive much in the way of salary; in fact, what I receive actually doesn’t cover my expenses over there, never mind expenses in this country when I am here.
I receive money for medicine from generous churches, friends, family and strangers in this country. I take that money with me and invest it – yes, invest it – in the lives of those who aren’t even on the economic ladder, who have no way to buy desperately needed medicines to save the lives of their families.
All of that money comes from donations.
But … if in these dire economic times people here are worried, are scared, about their own futures, they won’t be able to help secure the future of those far away.
And that’s the real crime of this economic mess.
Those at the top of the economic ladder are suffering losses in their portfolios. Suddenly, they are worth a whole lot less than they were before. Whether that qualifies as suffering, I don’t know. I’ve never been that high on the ladder, and while I understand their anxieties, having that much money, never mind losing a huge chunk of it, is beyond my ken.
Those standing on the middle rungs are clinging to them tightly, knowing that one small misstep will hurt them dramatically. They worry about paying off bills, education for their children, mortgages, jobs … and they are the ones who are retrenching, cutting back on eating out, on Christmas gifts, on anything they can. They are the ones who normally give to those in need … and that giving is already plummeting as they strive to protect their own. Their needs and fears I understand completely, since I used to belong to that class myself. And I don’t like asking for money from folks who need it for themselves.
And then there are those who are already on the bottom rung, the ones who could barely make things work even in the best of times, the ones who each month have to balance paying bills vs. buying food for their children. They don’t have health care and live in true fear of illness. They also are the ones who give most generously – always, it is the poor who share the most – but now, they are in desperate, desperate shape, and I absolutely refuse to take money from them. No, they can’t really fall farther down the ladder, but they are close to falling off the ladder, and I will not jeopardize them.
All of which means that the people who need help most desperately, the poor all over the world who aren’t even on the economic ladder and who have no ability to make it on their own because there is no stability where they live, well … they are literally out of luck. What little help they’ve been getting probably will dry up. New donors will be hard to find. And so these people will continue to suffer, and their suffering will get worse, and there’s not going to be much that can be done about it.
All because someone somewhere decided to gamble, not with his or her own money, but with the money and lives of others, not thinking about the trickle-down hell into which so many would be thrown.
In the old days, most of those who invested funds did so by combining their own money with that of investors big and small. So the men in charge of all this investing actually had a stake in what they were doing. That made them, it seems, more conservative and a whole lot more caring. Now, the money managers get their fees and their exorbitant salaries and go before Congress crying about how they have been hurt by the losses and how they absolutely deserve every cent of their enormous paychecks and benefits … and not once – not once – do they talk about the hardest-hit, the ones suffering from their flawed policies of greed.
There’s very little justice in trickle-down economics.
There is no justice in trickle-down hell.
The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an Appointed Missionary of the Episcopal Church serving in the Diocese of Renk, Sudan. She is a lecturer at the Renk Theological College, teaching Theology, Liturgy, Biblical Greek and English, and serves as chaplain for the students.
O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear.
