The Business of Poverty
Dec 10th, 2008 by ljkim
Perhaps the news lately should encourage us to think about the church’s (that is, “OUR”) role in blessing the poor. Say “church” and “poverty” and the first thing that comes into people’s minds is “charity.” That’s not a bad thing, sharing resources is one way of loving people and it acts as a safety net for society; but it leaves out a whole lot. The problem with poverty, whether it’s poverty in the outer boroughs (we don’t have inner-cities in NY) or abroad, is a lack of *power* to change one’s circumstances. Being poor is not just a lack of money and things, it’s lacking the opportunity to better one’s situation. It’s not just a lack of work or lack of education, it is the lack of the ability to change that lack. Most middle class people have trouble understanding this, but the current economic situation makes it a little easier to imagine.
The role of any business in God’s economy is to love your neighbor. To “love” the customer by providing a valuable resource (giving people more value than they pay for), and to “love” the employees by giving them opportunities to provide for themselves, opportunities to serve, and opportunities to move up and change their current economic situation. Bad businesses do the opposite: they exploit customers by giving low value at high prices, exploit workers by allowing management to profit off the labors of others, and by keeping people down in powerless situations while the top executives benefit.
One of the best things we can do for poor communities and poor countries is to establish “good” businesses in or near them. But this isn’t just something for presidents and CEOs to consider, it’s something we need to think about as we rise in our careers and have opportunities to impact our businesses. So the question is, will it just be (bad) business as usual? Bad business can be profitable in the short and medium term, but will eventually lose (Ayn Rand was wrong in that respect)… Or will you bless people with great products, and love-your-neighbor business practices?
[Nicholas Kristof wrote a note on this topic in the NYTimes Blog.]
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