catapult magazine

This seemed like too much of a deviation to continue with it on Adam’s topic.

Maybe having more responsibility and having higher profile work/jobs necessitates getting paid more, and maybe we need some people to be millionaires so that they can invest again in our country, and maybe we need to cut their taxes so that their current surplus of funds can be even larger and they can ‘improve’ our economy. I am not convinced, but I also know embarrassingly little about economics. I am trying to learn though.

My confusion begins when someone connects making $2 million a year with the ability and right to consume $2 million dollars worth of goods in that same year. Then again this is America and we all deserve more than we have (I know I do) so maybe they consume $2.3 million in one year. Is this really necessary? Does it do anyone good to drive a car worth $100,000 or pay for $100+ plates of food? Does it do our country good? I mean this literally.

Is this significantly different than me consuming $10 thousand in a year since I could most likely live on less and give more?

Maybe the privilege of making over $1 million a year should exist in deciding where that money should go, and I don?t mean Ultimate Electronics or Best Buy. Maybe the privilege and challenge is to decide where it could be best used and not where it would yield the most return.

I currently work at a movie theatre here in Sioux Center. It has been open for 8 months and has been doing fine. There are somewhere near 30 investors who invested around $300,000 so that this place could be here, and in five years there is a good chance that their investment will still be worth about the same. But it has brought something to this community that otherwise could not be here. Are things like this going on all around me without me knowing it?

Yeah, my voice is getting sore. . .

Norbert, I know Jesus spoke about the wealth of others. Jesus was also perfect and therefore incredibly qualified to preach to others about how they spent their money.

i’m thinking about wal-mart. i don’t like to go to wal-mart because of their business practices and what they do to a community and they way that they treat a community. so, i like to go to smaller ma and pa stores or little chain stores. for example i’ll travel to ben franklin to buy yarn instead of wal-mart, even if it is 15 minutes away. or i’ll try to find a place online to buy hemp things even though wal-mart sells it for less.

my question/dilema is by doing these things i am spending more. i make an effort to support other businesses, and in that effort they realize that they get less business, so they have to charge more for some things. in light of this if i was able to avoid wal-mart at all costs i will/would spend more money than i could have if i shopped there. so i may spend more than i “should” but i am avoiding what i consider to be a bad place to shop.

can this generalize into other things? should people who have more money work a little hard to find the people that need to have products purchased from them? even if it is more expensive? on the flip side, if i was extremely hard on cash and needed somethings, should i still avoid a place like wal-mart because of it’s practices or go there knowing that i have to use my money as economically as possible?

is there a time when not being thrifty is being more responsible?

enok’s questions bring to mind a point from the feature of the simplicity issue that has stuck with me:

those who seek to be stewardly with their wealth may have the means to live in a cozy energy-efficient two-room cabin they built themselves or to live on a magnificent sustainable estate with a state of the art habitat for endangered birds and amazing murals handcrafted over the course of several years by masterful artists. one of the amazing mysteries of God is the ability to see straight into the heart of a person to discern whether austerity is borne out of a hatred for God’s world or a love of essential good things, whether lavish spending is the result of taking joy in the essence of beauty or pride in surpassing one’s neighbors.

by way of confession, i do wish often that some wealthy visionary would adopt *cino as a pet cause so that i can someday purchase the beautiful handmade futon from local Amish craftspeople that will provide a good night’s rest for our overnight guests. and renovate the 19th century buildings that will house our *cino interns. and… and… and…

What is it to earn money responsibly? What is it to spend money responsibly? Two very huge questions in my life. Two large topics of discusson, so I will focus on spending. I find it unhelpful to consider the “millionaries” until I have consider my own “millions.” I would like to share some basic principles that my wife and I try to enact.
1. Always ask, “need” or “want” before spending (Intentionality)
2.We try to not be ascetic nor gluttonous (We are Blessed)
3. Make Purchases that are “fair” to the environment and global and local communities. (Buy Local whenever Possible!)
4. Invest our savings money in Socially Responsible Funds, Green Funds etc. (We vote with our Dollars as shareholders)
5. 10% of all income to church, plus causes we are passionate about
6.Detailed Tracking of Spending ( I spend that much on beer?)
7.Share: Borrow, buy togther, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Hope, I am clear and I would like to know if others have similiar struggles with actually living out the above ideas!
Dan P