Greed is moral

How does one translate greed into moral superiority?

Over the last couple weeks while Henry Paulson was demanding Congress act now to bail out Wall Street there were competing voices in that Congress that said what Paulson proposed is not the best way to rescue the economy but the urgency compressed the legislative timeline so much their own proposals were not heard. There were also lots of blogsphere voices claiming that Paulson's proposal would only enrich those who caused the fiasco in the first place. That's when I began to think that none of the plans were laid out in much detail for public consumption (not that I nor many of my fellow citizens are well enough versed in economics to tell much about any plan) and that all of the plans could be a particular Congresscritter's way to enrich their own fat cat constituent and themselves as well. Alas, there is no way to evaluate that so one should just rely on those who know better. But they have a pretty poor record of acting in the best interests of the country instead of those at the top of the economic heap. Sigh.

Part of that record isn’t just financial. I wrote before on the comments of Terrence Heath who has been poking at the conservative believe that the wealthy have money because God gave it to them because they are morally superior. By the same logic those that didn't have money were morally inferior and not worthy of the blessings of God (or of rich people). It couldn't be because they were greedy, could it? Heath showed how that belief affects many aspects of society, including the aftermath of Katrina. Why spend money rescuing people who don't deserve it?

Heath has expanded that concept another step. First he pokes around with the idea that has popped up lately that blacks or gays were the cause of the financial meltdown (if I could only remember what I did with the trillion I'm accused of squandering). If the country would only get its moral house in order (and gays know what that means) or if banks would stop coddling minorities then God would smile on us and we'd all be rich again (or at least the rich would be rich again).

God supposedly bestows wealth on the faithful. That's an idea at least as old as America's sense of Manifest Destiny -- we were given the wealth of North America because we deserved it. But the poor face the financial equivalent of ex-gay programs. God wants you to be straight/wealthy and if you don't succeed it is because you didn't try hard enough or believe hard enough or because you are so deeply flawed that God has given up on you. Strange that those who are already straight/wealthy don't face that dilemma.

That idea is the "prosperity gospel." If you believe God he will make a way for you to be wealthy. Alas, that appears to have contributed to the subprime mess. God wants you to be wealthy so he hid your bad credit score from the eyes of the mortgage officer and blessed you with your first house. Never mind you'll never be able to pay for it. And if you put an extra large offering in the plate this morning God might be able to hide a few more unhelpful numbers.

Just a pastor-enrichment scam? Maybe not. At least while the party lasted. Many who had seen themselves as useless did get a sense of empowerment for a while. Until they were encouraged to use their house as an ATM to subsidize lavish living. Then a pastor's empowerment became a pastor's irresponsibility. And the faithful didn't fare so well -- which put them back under the cloud of being morally inferior

But while that party lasted those who were rich -- and thus by (their) definition morally superior -- were free to demand deregulation, raid public coffers, and blackmail the peasantry so they could keep and increase their money. It wasn't immoral because they were morally superior. Soon there was nothing left to defraud the public out of. So the last source of money is future generations. They'll be paying our gargantuan public debt for a long time. They'll also be paying through not being able to buy other things -- like retirement and health care -- because that money is paying off that debt.