Capitalism and Consumption

Maybe it’s time to reexamine Christianity’s historical opposition to capitalism. It’s not enough to look at what it does for GDP. What does it do for spiritual values? What did it do for the young men now on death row? What did it do for Imelda Marcos? What did it do for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker? What did it do for O. J. Simpson? Though he seems like a great guy now, what might it be doing for Michael Jordan? What is it doing for the rest of us?

One hint of what it might be doing to us can be gleaned from the words of Victor Lebow, a businessman. In 1955, he said, "Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, .. that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate." (Well, that has sure been brought about, with devastating effects on the invironment and the earth’s natural resources, and uncertain effects on the human spirit.)

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