The SoSA Perspective

Unintended Consequences

It seems you can’t mess with any part of the world with out messing with the whole thing. We have apparently decided that we need to be less dependent on oil in fueling our economy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out, so far so good. Pursuant to this brain storm we’ve fallen face first into the production of ethanol from corn. Why turning fuel for your body (which is fairly fuel efficient) into fuel for your SUV (which isn’t) escapes me, but that’s another blog.

Here is where an impressive streak of unintended consequences begins. Using corn to produce ethanol drives up the price of corn. Farmers in the grain belt stop growing soy beans and plant corn instead, to take advantage of the high price. This drives up the price of soy beans. Dog food makers (who use a lot of corn in their product (don’t tell fido) can’t afford the pricey little kernels and so they substitute sweet potatoes. Society of St. Andrew (who normally distributes millions of pounds of cull sweet potatoes to the poor each year is left holding the proverbial (empty) bag. There, I’ve whined and I feel better. But wait! There’s more!

Remember the soy beans? They’re still expensive. So, cattle farmers in the Amazon basin plant soy beans in what used to be pasture land for their cattle. Meanwhile they still need pasture for the cattle business so (you guessed it) they speed up the cutting of the Amazon rain forest to provide more pasture. I understand from the nice people at Time magazine that they cut down an area the size of Rhode Island just last year!

Now the rain forest absorbs a lot more carbon dioxide (green house gas) that does pasture so global warming gets progressively worse, because of ethanol! Who knew? Is there a solution to all this? Beats me. But it might be a good idea (given the girth of the average American) to invest in a bicycle and use it when ever possible. Just a thought.

Recession! You think?

Alright, let’s everybody panic. The feared recession seems to be upon us. What to do, what to do?

Pardon me if I don’t jump right on that panic stricken band wagon. In almost all ways that really matter to people (the quality of life we lead, day to day) we’ve been in a recession since the middle seventies. Therein hangs the tale.

How can it be that there’s been a recession in our quality of life for the last thirty years and we never read about it? Well, because we don’t pay attention to anything but our Gross Domestic Product in measuring our economic well being. And GDP is a lousy measure of our actual well being. GDP measures only goods and services that are traded for money. GDP excludes everything else. So if you have an oil spill, for instance, GDP goes up when you pay someone to clean it up. No one in his right mind thinks the oil spill contributes to our well being. In the same way everyone knows that to stay home and raise our young children is very important. Yet, when we do that, because we’re not paid to do that, GDP doesn’t record our increased well being. When we go to work and pay for day care, then GDP goes up!

The point of this tirade is simply that we will have better quality of life when we begin to pay attention to those things that make for a better quality of life, and not before. As long as GDP is our God, then we’ll get more of what that God offers. Quality of life is not necessarily one of that Gods’ blessings.

Irrelevancy

It strikes me that the more evangelical Protestant wing of the Christian Church becomes more irrelevant every day. In a world facing unprecedented challenges of a deteriorating environment, global terrorism, the vast discrepancy between rich and poor, it seems that all the evangelical protestants have to say is “get saved” (we’ll define the preferred method for you) and “don’t do anything ‘bad’ sexually” (we’ll define ‘bad’ for you as well).

When you read their literature, or catch their sermons, it’s as if God doesn’t care about the earth (even though the book the evangelicals insist on calling the “word of God” labels God as the creator and owner of it all!) It is assumed (apparently) that God really isn’t interested in having His Church do or say anything about the grinding poverty, debilitating disease, and crippling ignorance that 6 out of 7 citizens of our world must live with. It is further assumed that as long as you’re acquiescing to the “right” theological proposition, and aren’t sporting an illegal smile of a sexual nature, that you can go to war when and where you choose, get as filthy rich as your talents and conniving will allow and treat the planet like it was your very own, regardless of the consequences.

I’ve been “saved” for over 30 years, read the bible through many times, and the God I know cares deeply about all His children, His creation, and has no intention of blowing it all up “when the Lord comes”. His intention is to have His Church heal the sick, feed the hungry, befriend the outcasts and generally fix what others have broken in this world. He’s probably wondering how long it will take His evangelical children to realize that they have a duty past “praising the Lord”. For the sake of the poor and needy of this world, I hope it’s soon.

Trouble in River City

Have you ever wondered, as I have, whether we should bill ourselves as a “Christian Nation”? I’m not sure we should. In fact I’m sure we shouldn’t, but for reasons that are generally overlooked by people who care about such things.

It strikes me as passing strange that the majority of people who describe this country as “Christian” are evangelical Christians. You would think that group, judging from all their pious carrying on, would know better. But they don’t seem to. When they do get upset about “unchristian” tendencies in our country the target of their ire is almost always sexual. How much skin is showing, who’s doing what with whom, and so on. I suppose those issues are somewhat important, but remedies for sexual misbehavior are best kept to the realm of family and church. As a nation that is trying to be “Christian” we have much bigger fish to fry.

Here’s the thing. We have fundamental problems in trying to be a “Christian Nation”. The church has taught for centuries that there are seven “deadly” sins. These sins, if indulged in regularly, will make any serious spiritual progress very difficult. They are, in no particular order, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Envy, and Anger. Our economy is parasitically dependent on the science/art of advertising and marketing. Those disciplines strive, not to let us know where we can fulfill our material needs, but to convince us that we can fulfill our spiritual needs with material goods. To do this, they (marketers) regularly appeal to our Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth and Envy. The only deadly left out is Anger, and any number of right wing talk show hosts take care of that oversight on a discouragingly consistent basis.

So, if your economy depends on violation of you most serious precepts for its ongoing prosperity, how “Christian” can it be? Now there’s an unchristian tendency worth getting upset about.

Gas on the fire?

Am I the only one who thinks that the “economic stimulus package” presently plowing its’ way through congress is a bad idea? I know, I know. Recession looms and our fearless leaders have to be seen as “doing something” about it. Republicans want to stimulate the economy because they don’t want to get to the November election with half the country out of work. Democrats will go along because they can’t afford (in November) to be seen as the party that blocked the “stimulus package” if half the country’s out of work.

It seems to me that the coming recession is the result of lots of factors, principal among them, our huge federal deficit. Our fearless leaders (fiscally responsible republicans all) insist on spending billions more than we have. In the seven years of their most recent reign our federal debt has risen from $ 5.7 Trillion to $9.7 Trillion! In the more immediate picture, the situation that has precipitated the present crisis is that many of us have taken out loans we can’t afford, and bankers, who should know better, have gleefully lent us the money! Again, spending money we don’t have.

The solution our “leaders” come up with? ‘Let’s spend $150 billion more (that we don’t have) and that will make it all better.’ Well…… it may stave off recession long enough to get the bozos re-elected, but in the end, it’s pouring gas on the fire. The saddest part of all this is that the bulk of this deficit bill will be with our children, and grandchildren, for a long long time.