On ABCs This Week with George Stephanopoulos, an “all-star panel of experts” gathered at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia to discuss economic recovery in the US. The six-member panel assessed the efforts that have been made thus far, and offered their opinions on what needs to happen to restore the economy.
As the discussion turned to the disparity in wealth acquisition, Stephanopoulos posed a question. “We know this whole debate about income inequality is going to be at the center of this campaign as well…How worried should we be about inequality?”
In response, Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google spoke quite well about education, growing the middle class and youth unemployment, but it was his own personal feeling that stood out.
“From my perspective, there’s a fairness argument. I personally believe that the top 1% need to share more.”
- Miller Center Panel I: State of the Economy (video)
- Miller Center Panel II: Economic Challenges Ahead (video)
Remember sharing? In the well-known excerpt from Robert Fulgham‘s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, the first lesson is “share everything”. Our parents and teachers told us this over and over. The lesson did not seem to take.
Our country has become much too concerned with possession. David Walker, former Comptroller General and another member of the Miller Center Panel, summed it up. “We are not discharging our stewardship responsibility.”
People of faith know that we will be judged by how we treated “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-46). Do we feed the hungry or clothe the naked? Do our economic policies? We ought to keep that in mind when we go the ballot box. Because just in case you are wondering, “Are we our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers?” (ref. Genesis 4:13), the answer is yes. Yes, we are.
Theo-logical Tijuana 