I read in my favorite blog that the richest American’s now earn almost a quarter of American income, making us worse in economic distribution than the Banana Republics of Central America.
This distresses me for two reasons: #1, I’m not one of America’s richest (and this does bias everyone who writes on this topic).
#2 The church seems to favor tax laws and economic “realities” that increase this disparity. We seem to forget that many of the laws of the Law were designed to foster economic equality, and that the Old Testament prophets condemned policies which helped the rich get richer at the expense of the poor.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I wish the church would say louder “this is a problem.”
(Just for the record, I’m free-market oriented and think people who work hard and smart deserve good incomes. What makes me nervous is the sense I get from people that its OK for CEOs to receive 530 times the income of the average worker of their companies.)