Why Wealthy People Give Less

In the MultiEarth economic religion, to give away too much is wrong because it reduces one’s capacity to participate more fully in the marketplace which is the primary activity of our spiritual practice. If you give money away, it deprives you of contributing to the greatest good which involves investing as much capital as possible for the greatest return. Such investment is more important than charitable donations in measuring faithfulness in stewards. 

Ever wonder why wealthy people (with some exceptions) give a lower percentage of their income and wealth than poorer people? A big reason is their religious devotion to the virtues of The Market.

Who's the Pope of Market Religion?

The chair of the Federal Reserve Bank occupies the seat of The Market religion’s high priest or pope. Heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Treasury Department, Goldman Sachs, large financial institutions and too-big-to-fail banks are leading clerics. They interpret to others the mysteries of The Market and its “invisible hand.” They decide on what theology of The Market, Mammon, Growth, and other deities fits the orthodox creed of the present and what does not. They determine what is right and wrong practice for the priesthood, as well as the staff they supervise throughout the economy.

They get a hand from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which oversees the Wall Street traders and fund managers. But given all the speculation and corruption, the oversight has a lot of overlook in it. Nonetheless, just watch what the markets do when Pope Bernanke talks. 

Market Logic: Greed Is Really Self-interest; Net Worth Makes for Self-worth

The Market teaches that it is our nature as humans to rationally seek the highest value for the lowest cost. Also, that we seek convenience and self-improvement above all else. Our capacities to care, share, and cooperate, though important, are trumped by our greed, selfishness, and competitiveness. In fact, what appears to many as greed is actually better reframed as acting in self-interest. The Market works with self-interest to bring forth salvation and human welfare, thus transforming greed and acquisitiveness into virtues. 

The worth of individuals is pervasively assessed by the symbols of wealth accumulation that they can display. Self-worth intertwines with net worth and can be determined by it. In the case of accidental death, families can be compensated according to the worth of the deceased. The worth of a person can be calculated by some formula such as what their earning capacity would have been over their lifetime.

The Market, Mammon, and the Multi Earth Pantheon of Deities

The Market is the supreme deity, a modern Zeus. Mount Wall Street is today’s Mount Olympus. Traits of The Market deity include being sovereign, unfettered, and omnipotent in power. The Market, with its mysterious, “invisible hand,” knows most and best, approaching omniscience. The logic of The Market has reasons of its own. It is self-regulating and knows what is good. When The Market expands, it is embodied as a Bull deity, a golden calf evoking dance and excited, cheering worship. But when The Market contracts, it behaves in the minds of investors like an untamed Bear. It’s best to be cautious with her; leave her alone in her bearish-ways lest she destroy you. 

Another deity of the pantheon, Mammon, is wealth — especially accumulated wealth, the amount one trusts in for security, or the family wealth of one or more previous generations which one is obligated to protect and expand so as to build a financial dynasty of whatever size. Returning it to strengthen the commonwealth, i.e., the economy of the great commons from which much of it came, is as rare as siting a mountain lion in the wild.

Devotion to Mammon extols maximizing profit and accumulating without limits. It is devotion to “More!” without any sense of “Enough!” The devotion often equals what we see in addictive behavior. Publicly-traded corporations have a legal responsibility to their shareholders to serve Mammon. It is within the global activities of The Market where Mammon’s worshippers are blessed or chastised. Loving Mammon motivates one toward “More!” and is a virtue in the marketplace.

Other important deities in the pantheon include Progress, Growth, Profit, Productivity, Consumption, Technology, and War. The divinity of each of these in economic religion becomes known through the unquestioning devotion they are given. In a Multi Earth economy, doubts that these deified entities are for the wellbeing of life or even the good of civilization are rarely heard. All these deities deeply stir the human spirit. We project upon them our own soul desires for more, better, and success. Even peace. As a result, spiritual energy inhabits them. The energy we give them builds and builds until they take on a life of their own. 

David Loy: "The Market Is ... the First Truly World Religion"

My relationship with Barry Shelley has brought so many good things my way. Partly it’s because he’s a political economist with whom I’ve checked out many economic ideas. Even more it’s his desire to share with me anything he has or knows that can help me do better what he knows I love doing: working on a jubilee, One Earth economy and having it work on all of us. He’s colleagial and appreciative. He’s a good fit with his new job with Oxfam America and their work on the interface of agriculture and economies worldwide.

In addition to the article by Harvey Cox I quoted in the previous blog, Barry copied me an article by David Loy,“The Religion of the Market,” in which Loy says that it is “apparent that the Market is becoming the first truly world religion, binding all corners of the globe more and more tightly into a worldview and set of values whose religious role we overlook only because we insist on seeing them as ‘secular.’” (Note: Scholars may be interested to know that Loy’s essay appears also in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, but it is available in totality only to subscribers.)

This article, and others Loy has written, add valuable perspective for me because he writes as a practicing Zen Buddhist interested in showing the social implications of Buddhist teachings. He perceives Market Religion to have surpassed, not only Buddhism, but all the world religions in its religious impact on the world.

Now that you’ve heard from both Harvey Cox and David Loy on The Market as religion, and I’ve acknowledged how much they help me see how the grip in which the Multi Earth worldview holds us is religious, what are your thoughts? Or perhaps you’ve thought of our daily economic choices as religious ones for a long time.