How can we heal our flawed economy Part 2

I am always disappointed to find when I speak to fellow Christians that they have not heard of The Jubilee Centre. Born out of a dream by its founder Michael Schluter in 1983, that biblical understanding would one day become a significant influence in world affairs, the Centre has been involved since in several reform initiatives, such as the UK’s Keep Sunday Special Campaign. The Jubilee Centre is first and foremost a Christian social reform organization. It is now pushing for recognition internationally and towards the end of 2008 made a presentation to staff and students at two Christian colleges in California, supported by Azusa Pacific University. The Jubilee Manifesto, published by them in 2005, is a Christian vision for social reform, based on the contention that there are sound biblical alternatives to capitalism, socialism and other ideologies. The Manifesto looks at a model of a new finance and economy based on the principle that the goal of a country’s economic policy should be healthy and enriched relationships, rather than wealth. It thus champions another vision of economic change.

Psychiatrists know that many of the mental illnesses so prevalent in our material Western society today stem from an unfulfilled need for sound and supportive personal relationships in our lives. It is not helpful to have an economic system that does little to support family and community life. The Manifesto suggests that a just and relational economy would ensure everyone has access to a means of production to give them income, through a wider distribution of assets, and land reforms, and this would preserve ‘rootedness and a sense of place’ for a wider population. It has been written to open up debate, as a catalyst for discussion and response, in the hope, in the words of the authors, that it ‘will encourage Christians in all parts of the world, and in all walks of life, to set about the reform of public policy, their workplace and their home life with a fresh sense of purpose and renewed vision.’

But this idea is not only for Christians. All who have a strong desire to improve this world, to make it a better place for our children and grandchildren, could usefully heed the message in this Manifesto. The Jubilee Centre website is also an excellent resource for stimulation and action.

How can we heal our flawed economy Part 1

 I have written over the last few weeks of the many flaws in our current Western economic model. But how can we build a better, more sustainable and fair system?

Economists, philosophers, theologians and more have contributed to the debate on the way forward for our economy in the context of addressing the world’s often seemingly insuperable problems. Our economic system is certainly not serving us well at the moment in its present form. Perhaps this is the opportunity to consider other options that address some of the present flaws. We do urgently need a system that promotes human justice and that stresses the importance of the long-term sustainability and protection of our planet. Where can we find this?

One such organization that works within these parameters is The Global Justice Movement. The essence of this movement’s message is an inclusive justice for all. It promotes policies that will provide a new, stable, just, global monetary system that will protect the environment by its sustainability, address poverty and the present rich–poor divide, and focus on real productive economy.

It starts with the idea of national bank-issued interest-free loans that have a real link to productive capacity and the spreading of that productive capacity, arising from within society. It is opposed to interest bearing loans which are created without any link to production, which have no regard as to whether the needs of society are met and which are controlled by those with no concern for society. Global justice, it believes, ends with global peace.

So what is proposed? Binary economics is a system developed in the 1990s by Rodney Shakespeare with Robert Ashford that fits well within the aims of the Global Justice Movement. It is based on the principle that both capital and labor should physically produce wealth and that all individuals should have access to such capital, provided for them if necessary using interest free money. This could produce a secure source of income for everyone, regardless of age, ability or occupation. This new and refreshing idea has been woven into a complete re-thinking of economics and politics, expressed in a most extraordinary vision in Seven Steps to Justice, one of the most readable and potentially and profoundly life changing books I have come across.

If only people would listen to wise words.

© Eleanor Stoneham 2011

Why do we need money?

The Greek Philosopher and scientist Aristotle explained in his Politics in c 330BC why money had been invented. The art of acquisition, he said, for which a currency was required, arose out of the simpler barter of goods, and he saw this as quite natural and healthy. But when ‘The supply of men’s needs came to depend on more foreign sources, as men began to import for themselves what they lacked, and to export what they had in superabundance: …in this way the use of a money currency was inevitably instituted,’he wrote.
But Aristotle made the distinction, between essential and therefore laudable expenditure for the daily needs of food, shelter and clothing, and the acquisition of money for acquisition’s sake by profit associated with retail trade. The latter he censured,

"because the gain in which it results is not naturally made, but is made at the expense of other men. The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Currency came into existence merely as a means of exchange; usury tries to make it increase."

Aristotle did not trust money because he could see that it could feed an insatiable desire way beyond what was necessary for our needs and he saw this as unethical.

In addition to life’s basic survival necessities of warmth, clean air, medicine, clean water, food and housing, all human beings worldwide have a need and a human right to be free, to be respected as equals, able to choose their own destiny and to fulfill their full emotional, intellectual and spiritual potential. We are all entitled to the five basic human justices, of monetary and social justice, economic and environmental justice and of the right to peace.

I believe that to really achieve such justice in our world we need to allow the healing qualities of compassion and vulnerability and spirituality to infuse our lives and our actions in our financial housekeeping.

In later posts I shall reflect further on this and on where and why our present economy is flawed. Meanwhile Rediscovering Values, by Jim Wallis, is a good place to start reading. (also mentioned in a previous blog).

© 2010 Eleanor Stoneham