{"id":996,"date":"2013-01-31T02:35:44","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T02:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/transforming-the-system-and-ourselves\/"},"modified":"2014-07-17T03:26:10","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T03:26:10","slug":"transforming-the-system-and-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/transforming-the-system-and-ourselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming the System….and Ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets in Davos Switzerland to discuss the global economy and business. This year\u2019s theme was \u201cD<\/span>ynamism and Resilience\u201d and they sought to listen to young business entrepreneurs, the future of the world economy. But it\u2019s last year\u2019s theme that I find more interesting, particularly in view of this week\u2019s reading assignment, \u201cThe Great Transformation\u201d by Karl Polanyi. Last year\u2019s World Economic Forum was interestingly enough also entitled, \u201cThe Great Transformation,\u201d though I\u2019m sure Polanyi would be turning over in his grave if he knew.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s WEF met with more economic uncertainty than this year, but it doesn\u2019t seem like much has changed from when Polanyi was writing.\u00a0 He asserts that capitalism in its<\/span> unalloyed<\/span> form isn\u2019t sustainable. Certainly the global economic climate of the past four years proves that.\u00a0 Corrupt banking and business practices that sought profit with a \u2018by any means necessary\u2019 attitude, by many accounts, started the recession. Why is capitalism in its essence not sustainable? I\u2019m sure there are all kinds of financial answers, but the theological ones are what I\u2019m concerned with. My primary answer: we have a sin problem. We\u2019re great at self-deception. We\u2019re selfish even at our best moments and many of our motives are in question. What are some of the results of this sin?<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Income inequality: The US fast food industry. Bloomberg News has a great article on how the CEO of McDonalds made $8.75 million last year while their\u00a0 \u2018burger flippers\u2019 made $8.25 per hour. To add insult to injury, McDonalds lobbies against the minimum wage and seeks to squash any attempt for employees to unionize. <\/span>http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2012-12-12\/mcdonald-s-8-25-man-and-8-75-million-ceo-shows-pay-gap.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Taxes: The rich are able to avoid taxes using loopholes and other tax strategies. Another article: <\/span>http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/magazine\/content\/11_16\/b4224045265660.htm?chan=magazine+channel_11_16+-+how+to+pay+no+taxes_11_16+-+how+to+pay+no+taxes<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Profiting off misery: The Economist has a good article (<\/span>http:\/\/www.economist.com\/node\/21551498<\/a><\/span><\/a>) about how difficult it can be for large companies to ensure that those making their products are well treated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Environmental destruction: three words: BP Oil Spill.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it seems like I\u2019m ranting against capitalism, I\u2019m not. It just might be the best of the worst. My point is that free-market capitalism isn\u2019t Jesus.\u00a0 It\u2019s corrupt and seedy because we\u2019re corrupt and seedy. It seeks to maximize profit because we seek to maximize profit. The free market, sadly, is a reflection of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what are we to do? What\u2019s the solution? I think the answer probably lies in the title of Polanyi\u2019s book, the Great Transformation. Beyond needing a \u201cgreat transformation\u201d of our financial system, we need a \u201cgreat transformation\u2019 of ourselves so that we become the people who are equally as concerned with the well being of others as ourselves. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets in Davos Switzerland to discuss the global economy and business. This year\u2019s theme was \u201cDynamism and Resilience\u201d and they sought to listen to young business entrepreneurs, the future of the world economy. But it\u2019s last year\u2019s theme that I find more interesting, particularly in view of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,4],"class_list":["post-996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-polanyi","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1271,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions\/1271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}