A new study, published Wednesday by a father-daughter researcher team, says religion is bigger than Facebook, Google and Apple — combined.

The article in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion said that the annual revenues of faith-based enterprises — not just churches but hospitals, schools, charities and even gospel musicians and halal food makers — is more than $378 billion a year.

And that's not counting the annual shopping bonanza motivated by Christmas.

Georgetown University's Brian Grim and the Newseum's Melissa Grim — in a study sponsored by an organization called Faith Counts, which promotes the value of religion — produced a 31-page breakdown of all the ways religion contributes to the U.S. economy.

The largest chunk of that $378 billion tally comes from faith-based health-care systems.

Religious groups run many of the hospitals in the United States; Catholic health systems alone reportedly account for 1 in 6 hospital beds in the country.

Then there are churches and congregations themselves.

Based on prior censuses of U.S. bodies of worship, the Grims looked at 344,894 congregations, from 236 different religious denominations (217 of them Christian, and others ranging from Shinto to Tao to Zoroastrian).

Collectively, those congregations count about half the American population as members. The average annual income for a congregation, the study said, is $242,910.

Most of that income comes from members' donations and dues, meaning Americans give $74.5 billion to their congregations per year, the study said.

Religious charities also contribute to the economy.

By far the largest faith-based charity, according to the study, is Lutheran Services of America, with an annual operating revenue of about $21 billion.

The study counted 17 more faith-based charities, all among Forbes's 50 biggest charities in America, with revenues ranging from $300 million (Cross International) to $6.6 billion (YMCA USA).

Almost all the charities are Christian, except for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, with an annual operating revenue of $400 million. Continue reading

Sources

• The Washington Post, article by Julie Zauzmer, a religion reporter.
• Image: Stuff

Not only was it a matter of social justice, Ford wrote, but paying high wages was also smart business. When wages are low, uncertainty dogs the marketplace and growth is weak. But when pay is high and steady, Ford asserted, business is more secure because workers earn enough to become good customers. They can afford to buy Model Ts. Read more

Sources

• Hedrick Smith in The New York Times
• Image: Wikia

Hedrick Smith is the author of "Who Stole the American Dream?"

In normal times, millions of people get married in their mid-to-late 20s. They spend lots of money on a wedding. They buy a car, often with a loan. They buy a house, always with a loan. They buy new furniture and appliances. With their time and money coupled, expenses that were once extraneous now feel reasonable. Maybe he was individually satisfied with sports bars and she with Netflix, but as a couple, it makes more sense to watch live sports and TV shows on their new couch, and so they buy cable. They have a kid, or more than a few. You know how the story goes.

DELAY, DELAY, DELAY.

Before the Great Recession, young people were already saving many of these activities for later in their lives. The share of young adults (18-29) who were married fell from 59% to 20% between 1960 and 2010. These couples bought houses later, too. "A decline in the incidence of marriage mechanically lowers home ownership," Martin Gervais and Jonas D.M. Fisher wrote in their paper "Why Has Home Ownership Fallen Among the Young?" Read more

Sources

• Derek Thompson in The Atlantic
• Image: Hemmy.net

Derek Thompson is a senior editor at The Atlantic.