Last week the LA Times reported that the world's richest woman, Australia's Gina Rinehart, had some recommendations for the poor.
If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain ... Do something to make more money yourself -- spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working.
As the Times' piece suggests, this is akin to the petulant "let them eat cake" line/attitude often attributed to France's Queen Marie Antoinette.
Here's the problem I have with this kind of stupidity.
According to the Bible there are at least four causes for poverty. Laziness, or what conservatives in the United States (and Gina) would refer to as a lack of personal responsibility, is just one of the causes.
The Bible also speaks about people wronged and impoverished through fraud, falsehoods, and famine (or sickness). You can't speak about poverty and make broad generalizations about "personal responsibility" when people are ripped off, are wrongly judged/accused, or are thrown into a condition or unemployed through no fault of their own.
When the game is rigged the causes behind poverty are made even worse.
Our conservative friends - like Gina - seem to have no sympathy for, nor a clue about, any of this.
And, for the record, like America's Walton and Koch brothers' families, Gina Rinehart did not create her $30 billion iron ore fortune. She got it the old fashioned way. She inherited it.
So, yeah, she's an idiot.
- Mark
UPDATE: Here's something else the rich seem to have skipped during Bible studies ... http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/08/30/caring-poor-governments-biblical-role ... Hat tip to my friend Leonel for bringing both articles to my attention.
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