The Problem With Prejudices That Target the Rich

[ProdglArchitect]

but we are not interested in applying His actual express teachings on wealth. Perhaps because one is more comfortable to discuss than the other,

I think the issue is that we disagree on aspects of what he was teaching about wealth. In my reading, pretty much every time Jesus mentions wealth it is in direct relation to the behavior of the rich individual. The sole exception is the passage about the eye of the needle, which I’ve already acknowledged.

Wealth is dangerous. I agree with you completely. Excessive wealth is even more dangerous. But I don’t believe Jesus teaches that it’s inherently immoral.

 

[TULIPed]

The point is that we should face up to Jesus’ teachings on wealth, which are virtually ignored, or justified into non-existence (at least in my experience). It doesn’t mean rich people are all evil. But it does mean we should take Jesus teachings on the topic seriously.

Now THIS is something I can agree with. Interestingly, more and more Christians are working towards the goal of reverse-tithing, i.e. living on 10% of your income and giving away 90%. My heart isn’t there yet (to do so cheerfully), but I do think it’s a worthy goal.

 

[Mr_Freeze]

The only way to get rich is to overcharge your customers and underpay your staff. The billions left over go to a select few.

Simplified, and true but, not the only way. Seems the preferred method for too many is:
Convince the masses to buy what they don’t need with money they don’t have.

 

[TheBomb.Com]

I always find it odd that so many people will defend the rich with their lives. Are they paying them or something?

 

[MikeInVA]

I find it odd in a day and age where stereotypes are so out of vogue yet “rich people” is a stereotype used to paint a wide swath of people (generally anyone with more money than the speaker).

Are there people with more money than they need or can use? Sure. I wish we as a culture focused more on charity than financial success as a goal in life. I wish that these people would use their money to help the world around them more, but I do not have the right to tell them how to use their money, nor do I have the right to take it from them and give it to other people.

 

[Hodos]

This is true. When I did a few years working in retail, I was at a super market and then a home improvement store, and everybody wanted to get a job at Walmart. Their entry pay was two dollars more than anybody else’s around the area. So, it’s odd how many people (not working in retail) hold up Walmart as the place that exploits labor by paying next to nothing. That is simply not true.

I also found that Walmart management is very responsive to their employees, by design. Walmart has a number of rules in place that were rules of thumb created by Sam Walton, that I found did a good job of fostering trust between management and labor.

 

[silentwitness]

God, You are so much richer than us in so many ways. Thank you God for sharing Your riches with us.

We can never be as rich as You and it is a grave sin to believe that, by right, we should be.

Pray that we reject the serpent of Gethsemane’s call for greed and envy to replace justice and respect whether it be towards You or towards our fellow brothers and sisters.

Amen.

 

[Peeps]

I don’t think that Jesus expected us all to be poor. I think that He expected that if we all followed His teachings, none of us would be poor.

But Jesus said that we will always have the poor with us (Matthew 26:11).

Whoever is “at the bottom” of the income sea will be “poor,” even if they have all that they need to live.

So unless everyone receives exactly the same income and material goods, there will be the “poor.”

They are here to give the rest of us people to love with our actions, not just our words.

 

[Convert3]

So unless everyone receives exactly the same income and material goods, there will be the “poor.”

Even then there will be poor among us. Today there are many high income people that live paycheck to paycheck because they don’t know how to manage money. People who can’t manage money will always be poor.
If we all had the same income, we’d all be poor because incentive will die away. Who would spend all the years necessary to learn medicine without a financial incentive? Who would invent new technologies without financial rewards on the horizon? Do you honestly believe they’ll do it for the good of humanity? Research takes money! Would people put their lives on the line to rescue or protect others if they’d make the same money doing an easier job? What of those who just won’t work? Do they still get the same wages?
There will always be poor, for many reasons. But everyone is lifted up in a capitalist economy.

 

[Peeps]

There will always be poor, for many reasons. But everyone is lifted up in a capitalist economy.

Many likes for your post!

We’re already seeing the effect of young people not wanting to spend the time, money, and effort on college or trade school if they aren’t guaranteed a good job.

Now, I can certainly understand that, but what it means is that the only people who will know and understand human history, philosophy, literature, theology, linguistics, culture, religion, etc. are rich people, because they have the money to send their children to major in these things in college/grad school, and to support their children when they graduate with virtually no job skills.

Don’t laugh–I know a young lady, an only child, daughter of a cancer doctor, who finally finished her Ph.D in classical studies and Latin when she was 30–and she’s not a Christian (doesn’t believe in any religion), so she will certainly not contribute much to the Church with her knowledge of Latin. However, take heart–she entered medical school, and will spend at least another 6-10 years earning her M.D. and completing her internship and residenc(ies)–can you imagine depending on your parents until you are 40?!

 

[vsedriver]

Because having jewelry and a good car is exactly the same thing as using cocaine.

how are they the same?

how is owning art objects the same as producing or using cocaine?

 

[Zaccheus]

If the whole world followed Jesus’ teachings there’d be no need for money, and poverty of necessities would also be eliminated. Sadly, the majority of the world seems not to care much about Christ’s teachings.

But Jesus said that we will always have the poor with us (Matthew 26:11).

Whoever is “at the bottom” of the income sea will be “poor,” even if they have all that they need to live.

So unless everyone receives exactly the same income and material goods, there will be the “poor.”

They are here to give the rest of us people to love with our actions, not just our words.

Jesus didn’t say that we should always have the poor: just that we will.
He was acknowledging a fact about the world, not approving it. If we all following His teachings, poverty would be no more. But that will not happen in this age of the world.

 

[Zaccheus]

Zaccheus:

Because having jewelry and a good car is exactly the same thing as using cocaine.

how are they the same?

how is owning art objects the same as producing or using cocaine?

They are not the same. I was giving a sarcastic reply to LilyM.

 

[vsedriver]

They are not the same. I was giving a sarcastic reply to LilyM.

LOL! yeah, I read that one wrong!

 

[Peeps]

Jesus didn’t say that we should always have the poor: just that we will.

And I didn’t say that.

And I agree to a certain extent–if we all followed His teachings, everyone would have their basic needs met.

I think a lot of wealthy people actually think they are “poor” because they still don’t have all that their heart desires. And a lot of people classified as “poor” because of their income consider themselves “rich” because they have all that they need and want.

I want to be like the second group!

 

[Shasta-Rose]

Who would spend all the years necessary to learn medicine without a financial incentive? Who would invent new technologies without financial rewards on the horizon? Do you honestly believe they’ll do it for the good of humanity?

That’s pretty much describing a communist society. This is why they don’t innovate and end up stealing from others.

 

[TheBomb.Com]

Normally, I’d joke about eating the rich, but people with excessive amounts of wealth are indeed criminals.

 

[KMC]

Apparently, if a great many people in the world live in poverty, we should not try to lift them out of poverty. They are already doing what is necessary to the Christian life by living in poverty.

This is a good insight. If the desire is to be in poverty, then nobody should try to live those in the desired state out of it.

If we are too help those in poverty, who can do that? Another person in poverty or a rich person? Just an observation, but not too many people in poverty are hiring at the moment.

 

[nicholasG]

The problem is the headline: The Problem With Prejudices That target the Rich

inferring that there are Prejudices that are acceptable.
Prejudice directed at any class of people is WRONG.

 

[Zaccheus]

Normally, I’d joke about eating the rich, but people with excessive amounts of wealth are indeed criminals.

That’s a broad brush you’re painting with I think.
What about people who inherited their wealth? Does that make them criminals?
Do successful businessmen or inventors become criminals at a certain point of income? What if they came by all their wealth honestly, never cheating or overcharging anybody?
How do you define ‘excessive’ anyway?

If the desire is to be in poverty,

That’s a very big "IF’.

@nicholasG

Agreed. Bigotry is wrong, whoever has been targeted.