Washington tackles economic problems with economic solutions. But is our recession driven by more than failed economic policies? What about failed moral policies?
Manhattan Institute’s City Journal says, “The financial bust reminds us that free markets require a constellation of moral virtues.” Article explores the role of Protestant work ethic as laying the foundation for the rise of the American economy:
“Weber famously argued that the Protestant Reformation—with John Calvin’s and Martin Luther’s emphasis on individual responsibility, hard work, thrift, providence, honesty, and deferred gratification at its center—shaped the spirit of capitalism and helped it succeed. Calvinism and the sects that grew out of it, especially Puritanism and John Wesley’s Methodism in England, were religions chiefly of the middle and working classes, and the virtues they promoted led to a new kind of affluence and upward mobility, based not on land (which was largely owned by the aristocracy) but on productive enterprises.”
Will free markets rebound without a resurgence in morals? Author Malanga:
“Bailout plans, new regulatory schemes, and monetary policy moves won’t be enough to spur a robust, long-term revival of American economic opportunity without some renewal of what was once understood as the work ethic—not just hard work but also a set of accompanying virtues, whose crucial role in the development and sustaining of free markets too few now recall.”
Martin Luther King called upon America to shift from being a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. Prabhu Guptara, a senior executive with UBS in Switzerland, echoes MLK:
“When people stop believing in God, they don’t start believing in nothing, they start believing anything that comes along. And as a culture shifts from being focused on tradition or society or God to being focused on money, then the kinds of problems we have had over the past few years are only to be expected.”
I’m eager to hear your thoughts on this topic. Health care is current priority as Washington focuses on economic recovery. Where’s the focus on our moral and ethical recovery? Share comments and insights below or on Campfire Blog; I look forward to hearing from you!
God bless,
Foster (:>)**************
Links:
Steven Malanga: Whatever Happened to Work Ethic?
Prabha Guptara: The Institutionalization of Greed
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For so many who place the Hollywood crowd on a pedestal, we can see another symptom in that erosion with their coming to the defense of Roman Polanski.
The old saying goes, "you will always hit 100% of the goals you don't set". We have not only lowered the bar on our moral expectations, we have all but removed it. Now we are paying for it in every aspect of our culture.