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Helping Those Really Left Behind
Certainly one of the strongest drivers of the globalization process has been the seemingly unstoppable flow of capital into most corners of the world at speeds measured in nano-seconds. Someone even recently told me about advantage of having a computer terminal on Wall Street instead of the west coast because it offered just of an edge in executing buy or sell action that could amount to robust profits.
Leaders in the faith communities have often joined the globalization cheerleading chorus but at the same time have raised a number of challenges that are worth pondering in the present climate. "It has a logic but not an ethic" was one of then cautions; "it must address the pain and the poverty of those who are left behind by the process" was another.
The current financial crisis may in some ways be seen as a cathartic moment when some of those admonitions and cautions are deserve another look. Faith traditions invite us to consider carefully our response to the "bailouts", to the regulation of the markets and to the social contracts that corporations assume when they are chartered. These responses are informed first by the core beliefs of different faiths and the wisdom garnered from their lived traditions.
A nearly unanimous chorus from religious leaders and advocates reminds us that "rescue" and "bailout plans" must keep offering help to the most vulnerable and pay attention to the impact on the poor who are often marginalized. The facile condemnation of the person with poor credit hoping to find a path to home ownership must be resisted. A closer examination of the "sub-prime sector" shows a much more complex set of circumstances and actors in this arena. Sub-prime lending when done correctly is a good thing.
Government, as the elected voice of the people, has as one of its responsibilities and roles, as my own tradition has consistently reiterated, to promote the common good. Included in this mandate is the regulation of the economic system for the good of society. Monitoring for systemic risk, when the actions and behaviors of individuals or institutions in any one sector, expose the entire system to potential widespread failure is part of that mandate. How actions in any one sector of the economy impacts people, who are not a party to the transaction, is also part of that responsibility.
Public and private corporations through their process of incorporation take upon themselves the responsibility of a social license to operate. This includes the numerous ways in which they depend on people and the environment to operate and to make a profit. Their fulfillment of that commitment must include a level of disclosure and transparency that allows their many stakeholders to measure the quality and the depth of their accountability.
The faiths remind us that the social bond which holds us together provides us with the best security and the greatest freedom for innovation and creativity. It is at our peril that we stray too far from this foundation. Privatization of profits and socializing the risks, a hallmark of the current dilemma, is one of the ways that we deny that truth. When the social protection that we rely on as a society is squandered recklessly we must focus our efforts on the actions that will knit that fabric back together.
Finally and more fundamentally than the above considerations is the realization that the glue that holds the global financial system together and allows it to function consists of faith in the system and trust in the people and institutions that operate it. While the financial framework may be enshrined in various laws and regulatory processes, the day to day operation of an economy is built on trust and confidence that are founded on truth telling and accountability. The trust that makes these relationships possible is not built by better regulations or increased monitoring but on a foundation which is at the core of all religious traditions; a trust that is fundamentally rooted in self-transcendence and forged on the anvil of daily interactions.
Rev Séamus P. Finn, OMI, is director of Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Washington.
By Séamus P. Finn |
October 14, 2008; 10:18 AM ET
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Posted by: dr_dick | October 18, 2008 12:43 PM
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Very insightful , and excellent post written. "The Key" here is infactly this: true success within our financial global system stems clearly from the demonstrations and accountablility forms of portraying ones institutions showing consistency containing grounded core beliefs in "extreme ethics" of "honesty" and "Trust". Building relationships with a true indentity of trust; but rather with firm action of succeeding our own limits and efforts in caring for others first---but, with a clear conscience of self-transcendence as well. In simple terms its clarified by our personal intergrity actions of concern for the other with "Truth binded ourselves". Monitoring and auditing ARE a large part of this process; but the most important laid before us to hold Our suffering global financial system together is putting the Other first-Prominient Eye contact-and listening for bettering our world... positive consistency unravels when "truth and accoutability" is put forth first -flowing much easier without the need to stretch for it!
Posted by: whitewolf1415 | October 15, 2008 9:58 AM
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Thank you, Seamus, for addressing what should be the root of responsibility in the corporate world. Trust in corporations has certainly been a casualty in the latest economic crisis but one that has been on the rise in many peoples minds, rising in direct correlation with the noticable lack of sense of responsibility of many corporations to the entire community-local and global-, with the obvious turn from "corporations to serve the needs of people" to "corporations to serve the desires of corporate people". Then we have to watch as good responsible corporations, who struggle to continue in the service of people, take the trickled-down, severe consequences of corporatons that have not been responsible.
Posted by: pattiradlesa | October 14, 2008 4:22 PM
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Good, balanced essay, Seamus. The observation of the lack of an ethic of globalization is an important one, especially salient right now.
Posted by: RPhares | October 14, 2008 1:15 PM
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Thank you for your thoughtful and spot on thesis. Kudos to you and your colleagues who labor in the halls of privilege and power on behalf of poor and dispossessed people.