Christian Response to OWS Protests

I was questioned about my views of the OWS protests. I provide the following response.

 I share many of the views of the OWS movement. However, I am aware of the complexity of what we are dealing with. It is horrendous what Wall Street got away with and equally horrendous what continues to happen. Banks that are too big to fail are, in fact, too big. I think that retail and investment banks should be separate. Investment banks rise and fall on their own merits. I also think that the pay given to bankers and investors is obscene.

Having said that, I don't think that changing the pay structure of finance executives or revamping bank structures will make things significantly better. There will be less anger against some, but then the continued frustrations with the lack of jobs, the level of income of many workers, including the middle class, the housing issue, etc. will remain. If one could wave a magic wand, housing would generally be less and inflation would be low. Income would be commensurate with a generally less expensive cost of living. But, for this to happen without hurting so many of our peoples who would lose much of their investments for retirement, without causing our economy to be even less competitive, without disrupting structures that cannot be easily changed, e.g., higher education costs have sky rocketed and one cannot imagine in the near future how these costs will be ameliorated, is extraordinarily complex.

In short, everything is a mess and fixing any one component may be a start, but the process will take so long that many will be frustrated with their personal situation. As I write, I sit comfortably in front of the ocean.  I am warm. I am secure. I no more deserve this good fortune than those who are angry. But trying to restore an equilibrium that has been so disrupted by so many events in a global economy is no small trick!

The question that any religious leader would address then is: given that the problems are beyond the scope of traditional business cycles, how does a Christian respond in a meaningful way? If the answer is the usual Gospel response to the poor, I would question its validity in terms of addressing the problems in any meaningful way. While an individual may have no other recourse than reaching out to someone in need to remain consistent with the person’s value system, it is virtually meaningless. Possibly, some may have some long-term benefit, but I don't think episodic and random charity is meaningful within the context of our national/international problems. A Christian may feel that he/she may have no choice, given the value system they are committed to. It would be delusional, however, to think that it is making any real difference. 

What we need is collective political action that addresses some of these humongous problems, e.g., Europe and US agree that there will transaction taxes on investments, that retail and investment banks be separated, that pay structures be somewhat regulated, that tax structures be modified to represent a fair distribution of how revenue is achieved, that higher education agree to reforms that will reduce costs, e.g., great professors are shared in many, if not all, universities through on-line technology, thereby reducing faculty costs, that trade agreements be based on fairness to all nations, etc. etc.

But, I know that collective political action is also a delusion. One cannot think about the set of problems confronting so many with so little leadership without fearing that frustrations and anger will lead to violence and social unrest. Should such happen, what is a bad situation will only become much worse.