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Theo520
Guest
Link please supporting these starvation numbers, I call BS on them.
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redbetta
Guest
Your typical CEO is anything but idle. Some of these guys have phones in their showers to answer business calls, for crying out loud. My mom is the property manager of a rich guy. He works 80 hours a week and barely got to see his kids grow up.
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Arkansan
Guest
I can see no evidence that any notable number of the rich are idle. In any case, even if that were true, capitalism at least ensures that the great majority of people are not idle.Arkansan:
Seems to me that capitalism has just the same problem. It’s just that the idle rich are, well, rich.
Best wishes, 2RM.
For the record, I am not a capitalist but a distributist, but capitalism is far far better than communism.
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J_the_Centrist
Guest
I agree with most of what you say but this is not what he’s saying. Communist confiscation of wealth is not voluntary, but he is speaking about a charitable, and very Christian, equitable distribution of wealth voluntarily given. It would never work of course considering that the people who really rule this world would never even consider such a thing. However, it is a nice thought but it is and will end that way, unless violent means were used but then it would no longer be voluntary.
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Theo520
Guest
I found their website and they don’t seem to support the numbers they throw out.
Where there is true deprivation, the cause is usually local conflicts or drought. In these cases the world is actively working to provide food, but relief efforts are hampered by local warlords or other local corruption. It’s not a food availability issue, it’s sitting in the ports waiting to be distributed.
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2ndRateMind
Guest
Sorry. Can’t post a clickable link, since I’m still a newbie. Just google ‘How many people die of starvation each year’, and follow ‘the Borgen Project’.
Best wishes, 2RM.
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Theo520
Guest
I did, and they don’t support the facts they throw out.
It’s good marketing for donations though
I misspoke, I meant to say the parable of the talents - Matthew 25:14–30
So what do you make of the parable of the talents vs your OP?
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2ndRateMind
Guest
Then, Arkansan, I can see no evidence that any notable number of the poor are idle. What I can conceive of, is that compared to the rich, they are under-compensated for their work.
Best wishes, 2RM.
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Arkansan
Guest
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2ndRateMind
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Theo520
Guest
Here is a more candid look at the alarmist starvation figures used to elicit donations
Outside of famine and war zones, the issue is malnutrition and the countries in question generally have the resources to rectify the problem. Our real challenge is to implement subsidiarity, and help their people and governments take better care of their less fortunate citizens. We shouldn’t be replacing them in this responsibility
Outside of famine and war zones, the issue is malnutrition and the countries in question generally have the resources to rectify the problem. Our real challenge is to implement subsidiarity, and help their people and governments take better care of their less fortunate citizens. We shouldn’t be replacing them in this responsibility
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2ndRateMind
Guest
Indeed. But I do not advocate communism. Just the voluntary, charitable, equitable, distribution of the world’s wealth. How is it you conflate the two?
Best wishes, 2RM.
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2ndRateMind
Guest
That’s OK. I like talents. I particularly like talents when they can be expressed because the people who have them can afford the necessary tools. And I like talents even more when they are expressed for the good of humanity, rather than selfish gain.
Best wishes, 2RM.
Seems I’ve hit my newbie post limit, for now. I can’t respond, 'til this time tomorrow.
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Arkansan
Guest
What you are advocating is literally communism.
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Canvas
Guest
Well, i find the situation of wealth inequality both nationally and globally, to be a terrible situation. Much more must be done by those who can to help their fellow man. That includes me, i should do more.
I don’t know anything about this forum’s approach to money , but some of the Early Church Fathers spoke strongly about it .
You are not making a gift of your possession to the poor person. You are handing over to him what is his.
Ambrose of Milan, 340-397.
The property of the wealthy holds them in chains . . . which shackle their courage and choke their faith and hamper their judgment and throttle their souls. They think of themselves as owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned: enslaved as they are to their own property, they are not the masters of their money but its slaves.
Cyprian, 300 A.D.
The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has no shoes; the money which you put into the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help but fail to help.
Basil of Caesarea, 330-370 A.D.
Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours but theirs.
John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD
Instead of the tithes which the law commanded, the Lord said to divide everything we have with the poor. And he said to love not only our neighbors but also our enemies, and to be givers and sharers not only with the good but also to be liberal givers toward those who take away our possessions.
Irenaeus, 130-200 AD
The rich are in possession of the goods of the poor, even if they have acquired them honestly or inherited them legally.
John Chrysostom, 347-407
Share everything with your brother. Do not say, “It is private property.” If you share what is everlasting, you should be that much more willing to share things which do not last.
The Didache
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Theo520
Guest
You ignored my question.
How does the parable sit with your OP request to equally distribute the wealth of the world?
How does the parable sit with your OP request to equally distribute the wealth of the world?
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Canvas
Guest
I was actually thinking of some of those statements and how concerns for the poor are so missing from the priorities of many modern American Christians.
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KJW5551
Guest
According to the World Bank, 10% of people live on less than $1.90 per day, down from 35% in 1990. Where is this 2 billion people statistic coming from?
The words of the Early Church Fathers on this subject make me feel very uncomfortable.
As do the words from the 21st Ecumenical Council’s Gaudium et Spes , “Since there are so many people prostrate with hunger in the world, this Sacred Council urges all, both individuals and governments, to remember the aphorism of the Fathers, “Feed the man dying of hunger, because if you have not fed him, you have killed him,””
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