Plenitude

  How much is enough?

  In Wall Street 2, the head of Goldman Sachs (or whatever they called it in the movie) says, simply, 'More.'

  In Juliet B. Schor's Plenitude, it's a very different answer.

  Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, is a two part journey.  The first is an exploration of what might happen if we, as a global society, continue on our current course of consumption, accumulating more things, consuming more fossil fuels, and destroying more natural habitat.  As you can imagine, it's not a pretty picture.  We don't know what will happen to the earth, but it seems as though a majority of the world's eyes are opened to the reality that it will be bad.  Many still deny that we need to change, but it seems as though there is a wave of momentum for something different picking up force.

  The second part of the journey is the proposal of Schor's book.  Basically, what she proposes is that we define wealth as something different than having more money, more things, than the neighbors.  She proposes that we stop working more hours to make more money to buy more things to support our consumption-driven lifestyles. She proposes that we develop alternative habits, some that will help provide, like container gardening and sewing, and some that will add wealth to our lives that cannot be counted fiscally, like investing in time with family.  She proposes that the future economy needs to value the earth's resources, and count the cost of deforestation and overfishing when we consider what we are paying.  It's a powerful proposal, one that is taking hold in many communities and hearts, and will continue to develop and blossom as people look for more in life than simply more costly toys.

  As a Christian, I find Schor's book particularly powerful.  This book is not religious at all, but in her alteration of the definition of wealth, I find something that I believe Jesus Christ would approve of--wealth is more than money, and life is more than things.

  We, as Christians, are to be concerned for the world, for our neighbors, for our family members.  We aren't here to accumulate things, to earn riches that we cannot take beyond the grave.  We aren't here to live for ourselves--we have a fundamental responsibility to one another, to the community.  We are to love our neighbors, and our neighbors include the wage slaves in China working in dangerous factories to produce our iPads and cheap clothes.  We should count the cost of a new pair of jeans as including the water it took to produce them.  We do not strive for worldly success, but rather faithfulness to a Gospel that demands us to be thoughtful, to be loving, to be gracious.  We are to care for the world God has made and for the people made in God's image.

  I'd highly recommend Plenitude.  Read it for the interesting economic proposals, and to open your eyes to the path the world is traveling.  Then let it be food for thought about how, as a Gospel-centered people focused on living in the Kingdom of God, we can live lives that proclaim a greater truth, the love and grace of Jesus Christ, in all that we do, in our work and our play, in our homes and our neighborhoods.  How can we be good stewards of the earth and faithful to the call of discipleship, living in such a way that demonstrates our faithfulness to Christ, not to profit and worldly success.

Here's a link to Juliet Schor's website.