A Spiritual Prospective on Our Current Economic Times
From a talk by Rev. James Trapp, President of the Association of Unity Churches International
What is the Truth about the current state of our national economy? Perhaps it would be helpful to consider the wise words of the poet, Thoreau: “It is not what you look at that is important, but what you see”
Sir John Templeton was a true financial wizard respected on Wall Street for his gift for making money. He was famous for focusing on our national assets while the majority focused on the problems and deficits of the national economy. During the early eighties, people thought inflation would impoverish us; but Mr. Templeton predicted a soaring stock market. During the early nineties, people thought the federal debt was earthshaking; but Mr. Templeton predicted “the twenty most prosperous years in history” for our world. In the late nineties, he predicted that if you invested in the Dow Jones, you would be lucky to break even in ten years, which has also been prophetic. Being a serious student of the Bible, Mr. Templeton knew fat years and lean years are simply the order of things.
Our human tendency is to focus on our challenges. This can be demonstrated by holding a piece of paper up and asking what you see. You’ll probably respond “a sheet of paper.” But if I take a magic marker, place a dot in the middle and ask again, you’ll likely reply you see “a dot”. Of course, what you really see is a very large piece of paper with a relatively small dot. That’s precisely why our media focus on the very small number of plane crashes rather than the much larger number of planes that arrive safely each day.
Unfortunately, after a while, that focus on the negative becomes a habit and begins to shape our worldview, including how we see the economy and our finances. For example, let me ask if you’ve ever heard about the size of our federal debt, which is like the dot on the paper. It’s now about $10 trillion, which sounds so giant-sized it can frighten any of us. But now let me ask this: Have you even once heard about the size of our nation’s assets, which is like the paper surrounding the dot? Very few of us have. Yet the same people who estimate the federal debt also estimate our nation’s assets are much, much larger. Now, despite the overwhelming evidence that we live amidst overflowing abundance, we often feel it’s not enough. We have a false sense it’s running out.”
To truly know Ultimate Reality, you have to know not only our economic challenges but also our blessings. Our economy has been growing at a fairly steady 2% per year for the past two hundred years. In its most recent report, which is very rarely seen, The Office of Management and Budget in the White House estimated that America’s total wealth is $120 trillion. Subtract the $8 trillion America owes other nations and our net wealth is an astounding $112 trillion. The average American enjoys about $370,000 of wealth. Our personal wealth isn’t that large. But you need to add your portion of this church, which is in what economists call the “independent sector” of the economy, and your portion of the roads that you drive on, which are in the “public sector.” All that wealth–plus our parks, schools, military, libraries, foundations, Red Cross and so on–is very real wealth that enriches us each day. Yet we seldom think about it as we focus on the twin-giants of deficits and debt. So I hope that each time someone talks about the huge deficit our federal government will run this year and next, and it will, to stimulate us out of recession, or the size of our federal debt, you will put those giants into perspective by sharing the size of our assets.
In fact, it will surprise those who’ve lived in fear of the federal debt recently but the White House report says that as a percentage of our national wealth, the federal debt has actually been in decline for nearly fifty years. Yes, as reported nearly every day, the nominal size of the debt has been growing. Yet as has rarely been reported, the size of our assets has been growing even faster, hence the increase in our net wealth. The same pattern has been repeated in households so household wealth is also at an all-time record despite the much reported increase in personal debt. As a percentage of our nation’s assets, the federal debt is only 6.8%, down from 10.4% in 1960. That is, if the federal debt was a mortgage and our American home was valued at $100,000 our mortgage would be $6,800. Remember: it is not what you look at that is important. It is what you see. Please join us in bringing more joy and prosperity into our world by seeing things in a new light.
