We Still Don't Get It

I've been watching the news a lot lately, taking in the varied reactions to the stimulus bill and foreclosure crisis response. Overwhelmingly, my thought is that some people STILL don't get it. I say this not because I think either proposal is perfect; no legislation is able to help everyone or fix every problem. However, it's more than was done before Obama took office, when maybe things could have been different if people up top had noticed a year ago that things were tanking, rather than sticking their heads in the sand. But still, what strikes me most is the nasty, bitter comments people are making about "mortgage bailouts" and "supporting the NEA" and "entitlement spending."

We are where we are because of greed, plain and simple. Greed of investors, greed of corporations and their CEOs, greed of stock traders and even personal greed, where people bought houses they couldn't afford because they thought they could sell them quickly and turn a profit in a skyrocketing housing market. But make no mistake about it: resenting legislation that will help a legitimately needy family refinance a shady mortgage, or griping about people receiving food stamps or extended unemployment, or thinking that an artist doesn't actually "work" - that's greed, too. A selfish greed. The kind of greed that says, "I deserve what I have but you don't."

It's not the attitude of a country that has accepted the realities of its behavior or that the lack of oversight and regulation was probably the greatest single contributor to every problem we face. You're mad that people overinflated their income on mortgage applications? What about the broker who TOLD them to do so? What about the fact that no one checked the numbers? They didn't care because they knew they weren't keeping the loans. You resent stimulus money being spent for NEA grants? Artists are hurting right now, just like factory workers. People don't buy art when they are struggling to pay bills. And yet, do we want to live in a world without art, without music, without the written word? All the things that separate us from being just another animal on the planet? And are you really complaining about someone needing assistance to EAT?

I get particularly frustrated with people who consider themselves Christian who have harsh words for government/taxpayer assistance for people. Consider this: "Carry each other's burdens and in this way fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2) We are compelled by our commitment of faith to love each other as we love ourselves.

I have to imagine that greed causes more suffering than any other fault we humans espouse. After all, what is lust but greed for another person? Our love of money, our love of things, our love of ourselves has corrupted the corporate world and it threatens to blacken each of us when we put ourselves above all else. How are we any better than that CEO who earned 67 million dollars last year while his company imploded? We aren't. We're just able to hide it better...for now.