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October 08, 2007

Cheer up, chaps

As a nice follow up on Zach and David's recent posts demonstrating some societal ills may not be as bad as they're perceived, Stephen Moore draws attention to a new United Nations report call "State of the Future," which concludes: "People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful, more connected, and they are living longer." Read the whole thing.

Update: Perhaps this kind of news hasn't been accepted very well because negativity is contagious.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at October 8, 2007 03:04 PM

Comments

There is a lot of truth in this but also a huge warning. The Old Testament prophets spoke out in times of great prosperity. They didn't simply rest on the idea of "cheer up, chaps." Most of the folks were not widows or orphans, nor were most of them needy. And yet the call for economic justice was urgent.

Capitalism is a wondrous thing on the one hand. On the other hand, capitalism seems far more popular than Christ. The danger of that outlook is that at a point someday where perhaps 90-95% prosper, society may simply write off that remaining 5-10%, either through neglect or euthanasia.

Because Christians in general are not financially generous toward their churches, the lion's share goes towards buildings and salaries and only a small fraction of church giving (with exceptions here and there) impacts economic justice.

Posted by: Joel Betow at October 9, 2007 03:26 AM | permalink

There is nothing wrong with pointing out these shortcomings of capitalism or freedom, but I do not accept that it is unjust that capitalism allows some poverty to continue, or that what people mean by "economic justice" is a form of justice at all.

Posted by: Karl at October 9, 2007 07:52 AM | permalink

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