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Occupy Wall St protests spread – an economic crisis born of greed

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Limitless Greed + Inequality + Market Volatility + Unemployment = An Occupied Wall Street.

The small protest known as Occupy Wall Street has grown over the past 4 weeks. Occupy Wall St protests have spread across the United States and are now going world-wide. There is even a group planning a week-long protest at Civic Square in Wellington, starting on Saturday. The Occupy Wellington group is also planning to protest in front of the Reserve Bank from November 5 to 30.

Occupy Wall St protesters are speaking out mainly against economic inequality and corporate greed. Usually, in a recession, income inequality shrinks, but in the present crisis this is not happening.

In the United Sates, in 2005, the richest 1 percent of households earned as much each year as the bottom 60 percent put together; they possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent; and with each passing year, a greater share of the nation’s treasure has been flowing through their hands and into their pockets. The analysts, Ajay Kapur, Niall Macleod, and Narendra Singh, coined a term for this state of affairs: plutonomy.

According to The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZCCSS), only twenty years ago New Zealand was one of the most equal countries in the western world. Now it is considered one of the most unequal countries in the developed world.

“Inequality increased faster here than in any other OECD country. Most of this increase is due to larger rises in overall incomes for the top 20 per cent of income earners.”

In March 2009 Pope Benedict, speaking at a General Audience  in Saint Peter’s Square said that the basis of the current economic crisis is “human greed”. “This economic crisis was born from greed” said the Pope. He then reminded of the French 8th century theologian and Benedictine priest Ambroise Autpert who criticised the wealth of the monasteries at the time. Ambrose Autpert “condemned greed and covetousness, considering them to be the root of all evil. In the light of today’s world economic crisis, his thinking is very current” said the Pope.

Pope Benedict recognized the dangers when he wrote, “The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner.”

The church has a lot to say about greed, but its voice is barely heard above the cry of the pitch-men and pitch-women hawking the most recent version of the Prosperity Gospel. From Oprah to the slick televangelists, the message that God wants us to be rich and will reward us here and now if we only want it badly enough and focus on it single-mindedly is devilishly successful.

 

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