How Big Can You Grow
By Dan Etheridge
Most of us fear the word economics. I know I do. It conjures up images of men at computers fiddling with figures, trading stocks and shares and doing extremely important stuff.
Economics often appears as this weird alter ego of a nation. Rather than be a simple system of measuring rates of exchange, trade and wealth, as one would expect, the economy has come alive, displaying a fully-fledged personality, with both health and emotional concerns. I know it’s weird but just look at the evidence. I mean, you hear politicians and business people saying that the “economy is healthy” or that “the economy is recovering from a slight downturn” or even that “the economy is buoyant!”. I’m not entirely sure what a buoyant economy should look like, but I guess he’d (actually “it” as I think economies must be a-sexual) be fun to hang around with sometime.
So, what's all the fuss?
I’m aware that there are many problems with attempting to define what we mean when we talk about economics. The first, and obviously most significant problem is that I would have already lost about 80% of my readers by simply stating that intention. Let’s face it, economics is boring to most of us and we’d flee from any discussion, article, TV show or person that mentioned the term. Secondly, I’m no expert and am therefore very likely to end up making some grossly inaccurate statements, of which I hope the more fiscal minded amongst you, will forgive me for.
The fact is, whether we like it or not, economics is important. It’s primarily about money or wealth generated by the flow of goods and services from one region to another. It’s a method of assessing whether we’re rich, poor, powerful, weak, important or insignificant. If our economy is in “depression”, and we’re not talking about sadness or chemical imbalances in the brain, we mean (on a very simplistic level) that there are increases in unemployment, restrictions on lending, reduced investment, companies going bankrupt and less and less trade. This is basically very bad.
The flip side of these negative impacts is prosperity. As the economony “matures” and “grows” the hope is that employment, consumer spending and profit all increase. We all benefit as money “trickles down” the layers of the economy, from business profits, to increased wages, from higher taxes supposedly resulting in better public services. It’s as simple as that, aim for growth and we’ll all be better off!
Economic growth means more money, which means, to cut a very long story short, that we’re all happier and more fulfilled. Now, how does that sit with you?
The golden touch
We’ve all heard the story of King Midas. According to the myth, Midas once did a favour for old guy who turned out to be the teacher and friend of the mythical God Dionysus. In exchange, Midas was granted a wish. I can only guess he hadn’t really thought through his request properly. He asked:
"Make everything I touch turn to gold!".
And like magic it did: food, drink, his horse, his servants, even his daughter. Not only was he close to starvation, but he turned his daughter into a motionless pillar. He was heartbroken and begged that his “Midas touch” would be reversed.
”What’s all this got to do with economics?” I hear you whimpering. Well, it’s a warning. Favouring growth, wealth or money over human life results in death. As the very clever David Korten summarises:
”Trading life for money is bad as it’s life and life alone that gives money it’s value” (Korten; p65, 1999).
The issue is starkly apparent. Around the world, in both the majority world and in the more ‘developed’ countries such as the UK and the USA, prosperity and wealth basically comes down to money. Economic growth, by which we mean a growth in money, is synonymous with development. The assumption is that more money will result in better standards of living, education, health care and happiness. This end is an extremely valid one. However, a problem exists. We’ve focussed so much on the means of achieving higher standards of living that we’ve forgotten about the end itself. The quest for a better life, has, in many senses, become a quest for money. In fact the idea of money, supposedly a means to the end of a better life, has become an end in and of itself. We’re in a dangerous situation.
Limits to growth
I remember talking to this little boy. He can’t have been more than 6 years old. As with most conversations I entertain with 6 year olds, discussion quickly moves from television shows to school life, and then remains on these subjects indefinitely. Anyway, we were talking through his issues with Maths, when all of a sudden he quite authoritatively states, “No one can count to one hundred, it’s impossible”. After informing him that it was possible, I proceeded to count to 100 to prove my point. As I got near the 80 mark, he got bored and started talking about something else…
Although he had the attention span of a turnip, that boy grasped something about numbers that many of us don’t realise. Although we can all count to one hundred, it becomes a lot harder to try counting to a million. However, we could still do it given enough time. The same is true of a billion, a trillion, one hundred million billion trillion… I could go on. Problems occur when we start talking about infinity. We could never count to infinity: we’d die trying. The whole world would pass away before we could even get close.
It seems to me (mainly because I read it from cleverer people than me) that money and economic growth is based on this infinite system. There are no limits to growth: it’s potentially infinite. Growth could go on and on and on and on, and that’s the point - there is NO end, NO satisfaction. This is what has been called the ‘peculiarity of money’, that it knows no ecological or biological restrictions (Gorringe: 1999, p23). Like the Midas touch, this system plays on humanity’s infinite desires… desires that always search for more producing “a limitless craving which is the shadow of genuine satisfaction” (Gorringe: 1999, p23).
Me and you both will leave this earth after and 70, maybe 80 years. The earth itself, as part of creation exhibits this similar finite characteristic. Trees, plants, animals, even land masses come and go. Furthermore the whole earth itself will come to an end at some moment in history and whether you believe this to be a point of evolutionary theory or a matter of eschatological significance, it’s still the fact.
Therefore we come to our problem. The world is finite, growth is infinite. The tension may not seem like much, but when our values and systems are based on this craving for growth, problems occur. Our finite natural resources are depleting for the sake of short term growth and profit. Trees, air quality, fish stocks and the diversity of the world species are all in decline, exploited by companies seeking to enlarge their profit margins. This may sound alarmist, and we shouldn’t panic too much, but the problem is acute enough to need addressing. We’re like Midas, wishing for prosperity at the cost of our own lives and the world we live in.
“I can’t get no satisfaction”
Mick Jagger could get any. It seems neither can we. I’m not talking about sex, like old Mick. Instead I’m talking about whole-scale satisfaction. Health, love, happiness, friendship, food, community and many other things on top of sex and financial wealth give us worth, bring meaning to our lives and give us true satisfaction.
However, even that isn’t the whole story.
In life we grow, mature, develop, change and do all sorts of things. The hope is that we’re working towards some end. As we focus more and more the on means to achieve those ends, on money or growth, sex or fame, or whatever… we forget that we’re working towards something, that there is an end and that defines life’s purpose. When we lose sight of this end, or purpose, we end up craving infinitely for satisfaction, but never finding it. Like old Mick we can’t get no satisfaction, because we’re confusing means with ends. In short we’re looking in the wrong place.
”Whoever loves money, never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 5v10).
Think about it. We’ve been working through money and economics. How of often is it that progress, development or prosperity defined solely in monetary terms (either in GNP, GDP or some other statistic) is used to classify the status of a nation. Obviously financial wealth indicates certain things, but can it really tell us how developed we are as human beings, or how a culture thrives in celebration and use of the arts, how many people are lonely, sad or depressed? These questions and many more highlight our confusion. How do we know we’re developed, what is the point and how do we know when we’ve reached it? We’ve lost sight of our purpose, thinking it’s all about money, growth or some other idol.
Knowing where we’re going
So this is where Jesus comes into the frame. An amazing figure of history. As Christians we believe he was divine, that he died, rose again and has offered a purpose for human life. He gives us back our destination, our goal or our purpose. He reminds us, through the pages of the gospels written in his memory and through the lives of those that follow him, that life is more than money, growth, sex, desire, intellect, fame and achievement. It is God who satisfies our desires; it is in Him that we find our purpose and our end:
“You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing”
Psalm 145v16
”Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied”
Luke 6v21
Relationship with God himself is our security, satisfaction and identity. It’s obvious, we’ve all heard it hundreds of times: ‘there’s a God shaped whole that we’re all trying to fill’. Sounds corny and clichéd but in terms of humankinds endless striving and pursuit of money, growth and development, we see our faith stand in contradiction to the world. Money, growth and development are all ways to meet our purpose, but they aren’t our purpose. There’s more and we were made to be more.
As we see in contemporary society people starve whilst whole nations struggle with obesity. Resources and workers are exploited for the sake of profit or, alternatively, in the name of ‘development’ and ‘growth’. Loosing sight of Jesus’ offer of ‘life and life to the fullest’ means we place our purpose in alternatives. Life is more than growth and money. Full life is found in relationship with the creator and that means we stand opposed to systems and structures that promote relentless growth and financial expansion – systems that ignore and destroy the life that Jesus offers.
Our only alternative is to live that life of fullness and make it possible for others to live it to. As we read in Mike’s article this month, and hear every time we read Isaiah 58, we as Christians are called to stand against injustice, clothe the naked, feed the hungry and be physically good news to the poor.
In terms of resources this means knowing that we have a responsibility to equally share the world’s wealth (that is food, trees, air quality and other natural resources) with the world’s population (at present the statistics say that under one fifth of the world’s population consume 86% of the worlds goods). Similarly we have a responsibility to extend this attitude of resource use to those generations that will live after we pass away. Such attitudes stand against the injustice and inequality that we live with in our world community where a child can die simply because a measles vaccination is not available.
In terms of our money, the call of Isaiah to live a full life and the act of offering others the same opportunity means that we bank ethically and act generously. Many banks and other investment company’s often use our money to finance and fund some horrific companies that act unethically but still make a profit. Would you want your hard earned savings to be invested in arms, furthering conflict and war throughout the globe? Neither would I.
There are many ways of living out the call of Isaiah 58. The offer of a full life that relationship with Jesus brings causes us to make a stand for others to experience that life. Being generous, giving away our ‘hard earned cash’ to the poor or giving up our ‘precious time’ to serve those who can’t repay us means we challenge a world that promotes endless growth over life and consumption over sharing.
The question is will we take up the challenge and where will we start?
Further reading
Tearfund’s “Lift The Label Campaign”
www. http://youth.tearfund.org/lift+the+label/finance/
Gorringe T, (1999) “Fair Shares: Ethics and the Global Economy”: London, Thames and Hudson.
Korten, D (1999) “The Postr Corporate World: Life After Capitalism”: West Hartford, Kumarian Press.
Schumacher, EF (1993) “Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered”: London, Vintage.
Taylor, JV (1975) “Enough is Enough”: London, SCM Press
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