the underlying economic structures, which directly cause such oppression of the poor to be changed, in a quote of an English bishop reported in a Catholic newspaper.
I had understood that the injustice was structural in a nebulous, inchoate sort of way, since that is basically what our politics is about, but the term, 'structural' epitomises it so well. It was one of Jesus' most bitter and vituperative criticisms of the leaders of the theocratic establishment of his day in Israel - that their real priorities were worldly, that money was their real god - and they weren't too fussy about their politics, in their mania to obtain it; although they were absolutely punctilious in their custom of "straining at a gnat, only to swallow a camel."
A few bawbees in the poor box. Which all puts one in mind of Dom Helder Camara's lament that when he gave to the poor, the rich people called him a saint; but when he asked why the poor had no food, they called him a Communist.
"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is disonest with little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." - Luke 16.
It's not, simply, beautifully poetic. Our future destiny depends on taking Christ's words on this subject very seriously indeed.
One of the best ways of changing the economic structures is to do so via taxation - which is what Obama is doing in some very small measure, admittedly. In any case, Bernanke's Quantitative Easing II is more than tantamount to extending Bush's tax break for the richest 2%. As ever, they simply want it all.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/06/ben-bernanke-qe2-quantitative-easingA fairer tax system, as advocated by Adam Smith, and in a more modest way, such as obtained in the UK under the old Labour party from the forties to the eighties (though doubtless, ever attenuating through the good offices of the Tory backwoodsmen, just biding their time, like the apparently stricken monster in the movies) redistributes wealth in a very modest way, by building up the nation's physical and social infrastructure to a civilised level - such as obtains in most of Europe.
Oddly enough, one of the most striking benefits to themselves, of the worldly rich having their taxes significantly raised, is that it should be easier for them not to pat themselves on the back for their contributions to the welfare of others - preventing "their left hand knowing what their right hand is doing."
Continuing polarisation of the wealth, as the Republicans want, could not fail to precipitate the fall of the sword of Damocles over the national economy, created by the same process and cretinous remedy of extending endless(!) unaffordable credit.
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