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WORKFORCE
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Theological Reflection The world’s economies are interlinked. For instance, as China and India’s economies grow, there is a greater pressure on global food supplies. This means that prices will continue to increase unless the supplies can increase too. One initial outcome of this situation is not that the richer western countries will face starvation, but that they will be forced to live below their current 3-5 times the world’s sustainability The implications for the very poor, however, are more serious. As food prices increase we can expect to see an increase in malnutrition and starvation. This will be especially evident for the half of the world’s population who live on less than $2.50 a day. The pressure on the very poor simply to survive, in any way they can, increases their vulnerability to trafficking. The belief that the “Market” or “Monetarism” is some kind of God (eg the Market will find a balance itself and solve economic issues) has been proved to be false in the case of the large banks being propped up by governments. The greed expressed by those of us who allow ourselves to be paid so much more than the people of sub Saharan Africa (for example) points to a moral problem in the capitalist system. At its best, Capitalism encourages shared risk for shared benefit. However, with no moral imperative, financial resources so unequal, and money being bought and sold for profit, the whole system is profoundly flawed. In the economic world, generosity and moral decisions become clouded by the pressure for monetary profit. Focusing on monetary profit carries the risk of understanding people primarily in terms of their market value. Thus we may refer to people as “human resources”. This can lead to the treatment of people as disposable or, ultimately, slavery. Buying and selling humans is a consequence of making monetary profit the primary purpose of work and life. Making a person secondary to monetary profit sets up a conflict for Capitalism…. starvation and slavery have nothing to do with sharing risk to benefit people. When Jesus takes the towel and washes the disciples’ feet, he is responding to the person. He offers his work freely, not for monetary gain but out of his care and compassion. Similarly, the woman who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume shows how monetary value and efficiency are secondary to the action of love. The words “efficiency”, “redundancy”, “growth” take on a new meaning when regarded not from the monetary perspective, but from the perspective of love.
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