The Book of Money

There can be no better time than now to teach kids and adults about finance. The Book of Money is geared to all ages, well-illustrated, and up to date. Here are some things discussed:

-Big loans versus microcredit

-Financial crime versus street crime

-Money in the ancient world

-Money in the age of the internet

-Saving and investing

-Connections between money and health

This book makes a lot of things clear with regard to saving. For instance, it shows that children are big consumers, despite the fact that they don’t earn any money. When they get to adulthood they can be stuck with student loans debts, or even credit card debt. So in other words, they go from high-spending non-earners to cash-strapped earners. Do things look bleak? Not if you follow the book’s advise on saving your money!

I love everything about the book. Bright colors, great photos, easily-to-understand diagrams; it’s everything you could want for a book about finance. It’s great for both kids and adults, but I think the kids need it more. Kids should get a free download of it to use in the classroom.

The American Way of Poverty

Over seventy years after the Great Depression, we have a new wave of poverty. Like the Great Depression, the causes were at work for years-unregulated credit and unenforced finance laws. Unlike a hurricane, you can see a financial disaster coming years in advance. The damage is also harder to repair.

    Sasha Abramsky has crafted an eloquent and well-researched book on the “new poverty” of the USA. We have millions out of work, local governments are bankrupts, and the only difference is that we have the FDIC. But in the 1930’s, there was little government support; you either worked or you starved, and a lot of people probably starved. In the past 20 years, we’ve come to rely on civil service jobs and government assistance, which the government is cutting back on. If a whole town relies on jobs in prisons, police departments, and public hospitals or schools, what will they do when the funds are cut? What will they do when unemployment payments end? In the 1930’s, the factory workers were out of work, but in this decade it’s government employees that are out of work.

    In the chapter Stuck in Reverse he writes, in detail, about people who subsist on 88-cent TV dinners (low pay at Walmart, high healthcare costs) and no fresh produce. Couple this with diabetes, a long commute to work, high fuel costs, and you can see where this is going. Abramsky blames this part on Texas’ ant-union attitude, but Walmart only puts its stores in states where unions are powerless. There are (according to this book) over 20 Walmarts in Dallas, $8.88 an hour wages, and a community so desperate for jobs that it allows a big business to do as it pleases.

   There are many who fight this and win. Look at Detroit’s urban farmers, taking over empty land and growing fresh vegetables. They’re dealing with the problem themselves, without government money. In Cities all over the USA you have non-profit tutoring services, health clinics, and improved school lunches. Some communities pass laws requiring derelict property to be torn down. But it doesn’t work if a city is loath to change. In the recent book The Metropolitan Revolution, the author blames the problems of Youngstown, Ohio on a fractured municipality. With no strong leader, the various councilmen and selectmen can’t agree on anything (kind of like the government shutdown going on right now.) Worse than an unfinished project are 20 years of plans that never get started. Are we “stuck in reverse,” or has progress just stalled.

    In the spirit of Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2003 Nickel and Dimed, Abramsky paints a portrait of a stagnated class. But unlike the poverty that Ehrenreich wrote about 11 years ago, today’s problems are far-reaching. The food pantries are running dry, and whole neighborhoods are empty, and former well-off middle class people are getting food packages from charities.

    If something isn’t done soon, the future looks rather bleak.

Is There At Least One Honest Politician in This Country?

In 2008, I the media was a wee bit unfair to Hillary Clinton. It seemed as though the anchormen wanted to make a point of ignoring her or rolling their eyes at her every time she opened her mouth. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, nobody ignored. Like Napoleon Dynamite, the audience hung onto every silly thing she said. If Palin was the election’s Napoleon Dynamite, then Hillary was the slow-witted fat guy from Office Space (she never did get her piece of cake.)

In this hilarious, wild book, we see that campaign finance laws aren’t much use, at least not the way they’re enforced. Sure, you can’t give your favorite Senator $100,000, but you can get 100,000 to give $100 each! You can have a big fundraiser dinner with lots of celebrities. When all that’s said and done, the media can, and obviously will, take sides.

Most Americans, according to Dollarocracy, tune into the nationwide news, not the local one. The nationwides, they have the money for the high powered signals, so whomever has the money for the advertising get the longest-reaching signal (duh!) and the average independent candidate might as well forget it. But without this “money-buys-votes” argument, what does it really boil down to? It’s Democrat versus Republican. Our country hasn’t had a strong third party in years. Okay, we had the Tea Party (they sure did a lot better than the Occupy movement), but they fizzled after the Republicans “borrowed” their ideas. When you only have two parties, you get monopoly. Americans are used to the Dems v G.O.P and they’re not going to break the tradition any time soon!

Now here’s an idea. Mitt Romney should’ve (secretly) funded Hillary Clinton or Jesse Jackson to run as an independent. It would’ve split the liberal vote in half, and weakened the Democratic party’s chances against the Republicans. Likewise, the Dems could’ve done the same with the Tea Party (not that they needed to.)

Maybe in 2016 someone will get wise?

Mind Over Medicine

Mind Over Medicine is about a solution to a great American problem; we let our jobs control our lives, and our lives control our jobs. In a recent issue of Minds magazine, some cops from Oregon took a meditation course as a way to reduce stress. Most of them scoffed at the idea; they all had hobbies, pastimes, and things to do outside of work, so what use would they have for meditation and yoga? But the truth is they needed it badly. The job was often boring rather than active, and that made them resentful. The resentment made it harder to maintain self-control when dealing with rude civilians, and there were numerous complaints.

Dr. Lissa Rankin has written a well-researched and highly enjoyable book on overworked Americans and what we can do about this. She makes it very clear; Americans tend to work long hours and lack true happiness. Worse than the long hours, we have long commutes, and we often hate our jobs. But in the chapter Loneliness Poisons the Body, we see how in one small town had far less stress. The town was 

Roseto, Pennsylvania, founded by Italian immigrants in the early 20^th century. Doctors found that there was no suicide, alcoholism, drug use, or crime, and that heart disease was rare. Was it the olive oil? No, the residents cooked everything in lard. Healthy food? No, they all loved pizza and sausages, and their diet was 40% fat. Genetics? They had the same genes as all other Italian Americans. Then secret was communal activity; families, and even multifamily groups, would gather nightly for group singing, while all the kids played together. Happiness was the key to their health.

Roseto didn’t do well in the modern era. As the younger generation left, the parents had less to do with themselves. As younger college-educated people came back, they influenced their younger townspeople with ideas, most of them about material things. The kids started demanding more, and feelings of discontent spread. By the 1980’s, there were more heart attacks among the residents. The chapter Death by Overwork is something that most Americans ignore. Why do we work such huge hours to pay for a huge home, when we could live in a smaller one and work less? Is it necessary for the kids to go to expensive colleges, when community colleges are within biking distance?

Years ago, I visited a family in Israel that lived in a tiny house, the size of a trailer. We ate dinner on the patio, and the father told us how he’d fixed the roof himself. When we left, my father spoke about how shocked he was. “They don’t have any money at all,” my father said, “their home is so small.” But I didn’t see it that way. The family had no mortgage to pay, only two of their kids were still living at home, and they didn’t have to pay for college. In short order, the family was 100% solvent. But if you have a huge house, two cars, and a kid going to an expensive college, are you truly rich? Are you in debt? Do you have to work such huge hours to pay for what you have?

Unless you are free from debt, you will never be truly free.

Christ Centered Biblical Counseling

I once met a retired pastor who’d become the assistant chaplain in the county jail. One of the prisoners was awaiting sentencing for buying old buildings, burning them down, and collecting the insurance. This man was also deeply religious and never went anywhere without his King James Bible. Clearly the chaplain wasn’t fooled, so I asked “did he burn down the buildings on Sunday?” At the sentencing, the judge said “I’ve read the bible too, and I recall somewhere it said “thou shalt not steal.” The accused had done a better job of lying to himself than lying to anybody else!

When it comes to religious counseling, it’s about morals, not psychology, on which we must concentrate or energy. In the chapter The Gospel in Balance, there’s a diagram of the science of forgiveness. I shows how we often let old grudges become more powerful than our will, and the grudge can turn into an idol that we worship. It is when things like guilt, anger, and envy take over our lives that we have to renew ourselves. We need to backtrack to the beginning, and set new goals for our lives. There are three elements to be found here; truth, worship, and change.

Now let’s look at the chapter Hope and Eternity, because “hope” is something where we usually mess up. We tend to think that “hope” actually brings things forth, and we end up sitting around waiting for a miracle to the point of narcissism. A more practical way for the counselor to bring the sufferer to her senses is by encouraging realistic goals. If you want proof, look at all those college grads out there who are bound for life to pay off student loans (note to the righteous, we must be slaves only to the Lord.) What was their goal in the first place? Did they think an expensive degree was a ticket to wealth? Did they think wealth was the ticket to happiness? Now look at the New York City public schools; starting teachers get the exact same salary, no matter where they got their degree. It’s the same thing for police officers, nurses, and army officers.

Before you even think of counseling someone who is troubled, read this book. It shows you how basic morals are the backbone of emotional health.

The Amish by Kraybill, Johnson Weiner, and Nolt

In 2006, a crazed gunman took an Amish school hostage, killed the kids, then killed himself. Immediately afterward, the victims’ families called on the killer’s family, offering support. One might ask how they could be so forgiving, and the answer is that they were taught all their lives to forgive and move on. They learn, by their elders’ example, not to show anger or hold grudges. It’s one of the habits that are essential to their survival.

   The point of The Amish is that tradition is the core of their perseverance and success. Before we go further, please don’t think that “tradition” is what you see in Fiddler On the Roof. On the contrary, the opening song Tradition from that musical is really making fun of tradition. Amish traditions are designed to keep everyone productive and make sure that they all get along.

    I went straight to the chapter Gender and Family because it’s exactly what every non-Amish wants to know about. I wanted to know if their gender roles are rigid, if the men control the women, how the families interact, etc. The answer I got from reading this great book is as follows; while the “work” roles are separated, the “social” ones are not. Girls are taught domestic work, while boys are taught farm skills and craftsmanship, but if there are no girls around, boys will do the dished, and vice versa.  Socially, things aren’t taught as they are with skills. Boys will be given dolls to play with, and girls will be given toy trucks (the parents don’t care) and the genders play together without restriction. It’s also possible, though not mentioned in the book, that the kids are not influenced by stereotypes. Take the average children’s book featuring animal characters; the father has a newspaper and a pipe, the mother does the cooking, little sister wears a pink dress, and the brother wears sneaker and has a scooter. It’s the same thing in cartoons and kiddie shows, but without a TV, and a limited number of non-Amish books, the kids won’t see it. Go into the average liberal household, and you’ll see parents discouraging thee year old boys from playing with dolls. But with the Amish, they don’t care. Genders are separated at times, but never segregated.

    Like the Native Americans, Amish women recuse themselves from preparing food during “that time of the month,” so obviously, the men will have to pitch in for those days that the wives are out. Assigning heavy chores to boys makes sense, because the men have greater upper-body strength. By assigning girls to learn cooking, it free the men to do heavy labor. But that doesn’t mean that the men snap their fingers when they want things; both genders have to respect each other. I was reminded of the book Rolling Thunder (about the Medicine Man of the same name) who argued with some feminists about “sexist” gender roles. The feminists argued that assigning women to do cooking was chauvinistic, but Rolling Thunder argued “where you come from, are you allowed three days vacation every time you menstruate?” The feminists replied “that means she can’t see her children for three days!” What can you do? Everyone’s entitled to their ways.

   Transgressions-like unmarried pregnancy or adultery-are punished by “shunning,” which is a form of temporary excommunication. To the Amish, this is not a punishment, but a way to avoid bad influences. Native Americans are known to do this if a member of their tribe violates their rules; in Looking For Lost Bird, a Navajo family is ordered to leave the reservation, because their 13 year old son is punching female students on the bus. Like the Amish, the Navajo used to have a tradition of having boys and girls work apart from each other, but thanks to modern life, they were thrown together. Some families can’t reconcile this with modern gender-mixing, and you get trouble. Even in modern families, shunning can be used, as it is in the New York Times article Angela Whitaker’s Climb (compiled in Class Matters.) In the story, the mother won’t let her grown children near their siblings out of fear that they’ll be a bad influence, and her method works. Keeping the kids away from trouble is a major part of Amish child-rearing, but only in an Amish community could this work. In Amish life, you don’t have unemployment; the kids are working in some way from the time they can hold a spoon, so they’re never left without something to do. On the opposite side, you have single parent families in towns with no jobs. What will the kids do with their time?

    My only fault with this book is the lack of first-person accounts. The chapter on Rumspringa shows that the media portrayals and the documentary were greatly exaggerated and sensationalized, so I would prefer to hear what the individuals have to say. I’ve also read that the Amish were not happy about the movie Witness, where Harrison Ford defends his Amish hosts with his fists. Their spokesman was quoted as “our tradition bars us from filing a lawsuit to keep this movie out of the theatres.” I would also have like to hear about Edward Gingrich, the only Amish man ever convicted of murder.

  Overall, The Amish is a great book. It’s a tie-in with the American Experience documentary, though it will take considerably longer to read this huge volume than watch the program. The book’s thoroughness is praiseworthy, along with its unbiased approach. It doesn’t overpraise the Amish, nor does it criticize their ways. If you’re wondering how traditional societies cope with the modern era, this book is perfect.

Moral Issues and Christian Responses by Patricia and Shannon Jung

Morals can be a fickle thing nowadays, especially when lines are being blurred by the media. Moral Issues and Christian Responses tries to tackle the way we respond to morals, especially with regard to violence, media influences, consumerism, celebrity worship (the new idolatry) and countless others. Patricia and Shannon Jung have written this book so that we can discuss two modern dilemmas. The first one is the media, which influences us, and the second one is violence, which tests our ability to forgive.

   Forgiveness gets a full chapter in this book, with special regard to the Nickel Mines school massacre. For those of you that don’t recall, a non-Amish man took a school hostage, killed several Amish children, and then killed himself. The astonishing result was that the Amish community was quick to make their peace with the killer’s widow and parents. It was something the Amish had been taught all their lives, to forgive and move on, never letting grudges or anger get in the way of their lives. Perhaps their willingness to forgive other is one of the reasons for their success as a community? However, a spokesman for the Amish said that they would not have asked for leniency had the killer lived. It would have been necessary, in their view, to confine him so that he couldn’t kill again.

    The Jungs are not unsympathetic to people who are angry for having been wronged. They give an example of a worker who want a promotion, and goes out of his way to defame another in order to get it. They use the term “reasonable blame” when referring to an act that was deliberate and that the transgressor knew was wrong. Primo Levi and Simon Weisenthal are an example; both are Holocaust survivors who’ve written books about their lives, and they have not been lenient in forgiveness. Unlike the Amish at Nickel Mines, they expected transgressors to understand their errors before asking for forgiveness.

   One of the issues discussed later in the book is rape. The chapter begins unusually, with a letter to Dear Abby from 1995, complaining about a friend who’s charged with the rape of a girlfriend. The writer of this letter doesn’t deny anything; he admits the events happen as the accuser says. His complaint is that they’d had sex before, and this time round he wouldn’t hear the word “no,” and because the woman was no longer a virgin it shouldn’t be considered rape. But I have to ask myself, would he want this man around his wife and kids? What if it were his daughter that had been raped? In terms of morals, should we be forgiving and non-judgmental if our friend harms others and not us? How would we feel if we were the victims?

    The chapter Sexual Ethics continues to discuss this, with regard to sex trafficking and how faith-based organizations deal with the problem. There are shelters, hotlines, and counseling services, all badly needed because the victims may be reluctant to go to the authorities. The women may be afraid of being prosecuted for prostitution, though in reality, it’s not prostitution at all. Under most state laws, a minor is incapable of giving consent in a sex case, so she can’t consent to exchanging sexual favors for money. Without much help from the government, at least the religious charities are striving to help the victim. But in earlier times, there wouldn’t have been much support; the best a teenage runaway could expect was to go into the Magdalene laundries, and for those of you that saw the movie, you’ll know it replaced one kind of abuse with another.

    The Jungs have done a marvelous job with Moral Issues and Christian Responses, which is detailed, unbiased, and informative. It is the perfect guide to answering today’s moral problems, and most important of all, it teaches us how the power of forgiveness is the basis for overcoming tragedy.