Tag: wealth

Income Inequality and Investing

man wearing black framed eyeglasses with hand on his chin
~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

In the United States and throughout the world, income inequality is growing. While some degree of inequality is inevitable and even beneficial, inequality for reasons unrelated to personal merit is often problematic. In one example, investors do not share the same opportunities. The rich have many more options to build wealth than the poor do, in addition to having more resources and commonly more financial education. While many of these problems cannot be solved by governments, political leaders can limit income inequality and encourage investment.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Income inequality is not necessarily an evil but rather can be a motivator. It can be a fair reward for labor. However, extreme inequality of income and net worth, especially when unrelated to personal effort, is a vexing global problem. Television, the media, and social media highlight the differences between those who are too rich to drive and those who are too hungry to walk. Entrenched money holding, greater financial opportunities, and increasing societal complexity make the problem worse.

As income disparities have increased, certain individuals and organizations have accumulated sums of money unimaginable to most of the world. These hyper-rich private actors can shape the economic system, sometimes to the detriment of other people. Wealth consolidation can be a social good by motivating people to work hard and contribute to society at large. Extreme wealth consolidation, however, raises resentment, feelings of helplessness, and social instability. Though completely unjustified, the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the lionization of his alleged killer, Luigi Mangione, is an example.

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Spiritual Power

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What is spiritual power? How do you get it? How do you use it? How do you give the glory to God?

By Mark D. Harris

A patient came to me in tears. As a child she had suffered abuse, alcoholism, and even rape. The Christianity she had known was stern and foreboding. Images of the past were hard to overcome, much less erase. Now she was in a good marriage, had a healthy boy, and was in a solid church. Nevertheless, she was fearful and depressed, feeling unable to face most days. Completing the basic tasks of life, such as caring for her infant son and keeping the house, was nearly impossible. In her dark moments, this woman was afraid that she would lose everything she had ever dreamed of, and now had.

She is not alone. One professionally successful acquaintance is going through a divorce, a job change, and struggling with alcohol abuse.  Another young woman told me of her troubles with anxiety and perfectionism while she was cleaning my teeth. A middle-aged friend struggles with his self-worth after being without a job for nearly two years. A woman jumped off the roof of her 17-story apartment building.

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Useful Quotations on Money, Poverty and Wealth

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Pithy Prose for Politicians, Preachers, Professors, Pundits, and Public Speakers.

Mark 10:29 – Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake,

30 – but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.

31 – “But many who are first, will be last; and the last, first.”

 

“I’m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.” E E Cummings (1894-1962)

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

“If you can count your money, you don’t have a billion dollars.” J. Paul Getty (1892-1976)

“Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.” Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), U.S. president. Speech, 21 March 1864, in reply to committee from the New York Workingmen’s Association.

“Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.” Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U.S. Republican (later Progressive) politician, president. Speech, 23 Aug. 1902, Providence, R.I.

“The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), U.S. Democratic politician, president. Radio broadcast, 7 April 1932.

Israel at the Time of Hosea

time of Hosea
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Students of the Bible must understand the background to Bible stories and Bible characters if they wish to grow in their faith. This article looks at Israel during the time of Hosea.

By Mark D. Harris

The Prophet Hosea (ministry 750-715 BC) lived at a time of weakness in the northern kingdom of Israel, home of the ten tribes. Within 30 years, Israel would fall to the Assyrian army, its people would be carried into exile, and Israel would cease to exist. The glory days of Jeroboam II were long over. Weak and foolish kings followed him, and the people drifted further from the Lord.

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