I’m well aware that the current economic situation is one fraught with complexity and detail.  It’s not a simple problem with a simple solution.

But I can’t help but feel nervous about these massive ‘economic stimulus’ packages.  The mixture of strong insistence by leaders and hesitant cautiousness by would-be supporters is uneasy to say the least.

I truly understand the ‘right now’ urgency to keep things going and save jobs (at least for the moment).  Real people have really lost their jobs and really have new and difficult problems.  I certainly do not mean to be at all glib about the struggles both now and ahead for many in developed nations.  But I cannot help but be reminded not only that these could well be short-term jolts to a long-term problematic system, but primarily of the stark and utter difference between the ‘problems’ of the ‘west’ and the problems of the ‘rest’.

Contrary to the capitalistic rhetoric of ‘rising tides that lift many small boats’ used to justify pouring hundreds of billions into ‘the economy’, we all know that greed does not engender generosity.  We don’t need rising stocks, but realistic standards of living.  We need to recognise that by insisting on our ‘way of life’ and our ‘economic competitiveness’ we are  stealing life and resources from those who desperately need it; through admittedly complex (yet at the same time quite simple) processes.  We need a justice stimulus.

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Dale Campbell is a volunteer advocate for TEAR Fund New Zealand. He is an Associate Pastor at Northcote Baptist Church in Auckland, New Zealand and runs a blog that is well worth reading – Fruitful Faith.

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