Here's something from yesterday's FB. My OP included a 2-paragraph quote:
This is a "right between the eyes" revelation to me, but it ties together a whole bunch of threads that have been whipping around loosely inside my brain for a very long time. The love of money is indeed a root of all kinds of evil.
"An important current feeding the Republicans’ embrace of Trump is that the Republican leadership is wedded to an ideology that sees the most important American principle as a specific form of individual economic “freedom,” not democracy.
After World War II, Americans of both parties began to defend the concept of democracy, in which every person was equal before the law. That meant civil rights for Black and Brown Americans, as well as for women. But it also meant that the government tried to keep the economic playing field level enough that everyone had an equal shot at rising to prosperity."
HEATHERCOXRICHARDSON.SUBSTACK.COM
Here's a link to the entire article.
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What I will post below is related to what appears above. This too seems to me to involve an inordinate love of money.
Today another FB friend lamented how many local properties are being taken out of the long-term rental market by people who want to turn the properties into airbnb's, thus making it difficult for many families to find affordable rental homes. This sounded like a reasonable concern to me. I had never given this side of property management much thought, so I read the comments to see what other people are saying about this matter. I still don't have a big opinion on airbnb's/rentals, etc., but I soon realized that the basis on which some were formulating their opinions didn't work for me. I'll give you my comment first:
Miriam Iwashige
This is one of the areas in which I think appealing to capitalist values is particularly suspect. Capitalism was not created on the eighth day by God or on any other day. Blind loyalty to its principles is a seedbed for all kinds of evil--just as is the case for socialism, for that matter.
The writer of the OP liked it, but it was not affirmed by anyone else. I'm not surprised. Capitalism is a deeply cherished value for people who are served well by it. When examined thoroughly, some of its tenets are very far afield from what Scripture advocates. It's not all bad, of course, as is true of socialism. Elements of both can be found in both Old Testament Israel and the New Testament Church. At the very end I'll paste a comment in this thread that I really liked.
I'll paste another person's comment here to illustrate how the virtues of capitalism are often extolled by Christians (Note: free markets is one of the the components of capitalism):
You’re missing quite a few components of economic reality in your push for cheap rentals. Below market value rental property isn’t a sustainable business model. That’s simple math. And if there’s no landlords, there’s no rentals available. Second, renting shouldn’t be a long term solution or goal anyway. It’s a great way to keep someone in poverty long term. Putting restrictions on anything hasn’t been a successful model throughout history, as socialism never works. So I’d love to hear more ideas on how to solve the housing shortage, but I don’t believe restricting the free market is the answer. It never has been, throughout history
I am well aware of rent market values in this area but that doesn’t change the reality of economic principles. Crippling the free market doesn’t make rent more affordable, it only makes rentals less readily available because landlords can’t afford to lose money on the properties. My premise hasn’t changed. Renting is a great way to keep someone in poverty long term. And if someone can’t afford market value rents in a certain geographic location, then they simply can’t afford to live in that area. I couldn’t afford rent in the Silicon Valley, therefore I don’t live in the Silicon Valley. What you’re proposing is a socialistic principle, and you only need to look around the world to understand that socialism doesn’t work. The current rates are driven by many things including inflation which is driven by poor decisions in the federal government. Your desire for affordable rent is not based in economic reality and I don’t see how you expect putting a cap on rental rates would help anyone, least of all the renter.
Furthermore, not everyone has the same definition of “affordable”.
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Rosina SchmuckerI hear you. Providing a home for people who need one is something I care about, and I figure if I'm rich enough to own more than one house, I don't have to make a lot of money on it. Sort of like giving away my extra coat (Luke 3:11) except I do make some profit.
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