Church and State (Blog #3)

It is my personal opinion that spiritual values and economics, at least at present, do not coincide. if spiritual values, or morality in general, were in mind when it came to economics then money-laundering, money fraud, and embezzlement fiascoes would not be so commonplace. Big business is all about surplus. How much does one need to expand? How much can one make? How much does one want? When it becomes a matter of want and greed for the select few then things like worker satisfaction lose importance. And if the workers are not satisfied then the quality of the product might also start to decline. But sometimes the workers aren't the problem. Sometimes companies purposefully cut corners.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Corporations like Johnson and Johnson are involved in the green movement to better the environment. Procter and Gamble makes its name through it's extensive community engagement. Products like Tylenol sponsor a generous scholarship program for college students. But more often than not, it isn't the companies that have made it that exhibit a general lack of concern for others, it is the ones that are struggling.

However, at the other end of the spectrum are businesses like Wal-Mart who have little respect for the spiritual aspect of life as they demonstrated by the construction of one of their stores on ancient Mexican spiritual grounds in Teotihuacan. "Walmart has been criticized...for its...low wages [and] low rates of employee health insurance enrollment" (wikipedia.org). I'm not saying that if everyone in charge of Wal-Mart, or any business fro that matter, was a pious believer in some kind of religion that everything would run smoothly and everyone would be happy. The fact of the matter is that it is impossible to please everyone. But at the same time, it isn't necessary to hurt anyone to make that extra dollar. If economics becomes reduced to that then it's little more than a feudal system where the serfs feed money into their lord's purse and have little to show for it.