Why We Work for "Stuff" - A Catholic View of Private Property - Part 6
Before we finish up our discussion of a Catholic view of private property, there's one more point that needs to be made. It's fundamentally important and we really didn't single it out in our recent posts: We should live more frugally to share more with the poor.
We have talked about how we should create surplus in order to share that surplus with the poor. We focused on how we could use our energy, skills, and talents to increase efficiency, and thereby production, in our chosen field such that the total "pie" grows larger, providing more to share with the poor. Such efforts would be, no doubt, admirable. But here we've turned from creating more to using less.
Using less hits home much harder and much more immediately. While I can't judge anyone's individual situation, I do know from observation and experience that many, if not most, of us in the West, especially in the U.S. would not suffer from an increase in frugality. Many of us live a life style that exceeds that of much of the rest of the world. Indeed, all of us live far above the living standards of the rich and powerful of the past. Just take a moment to read about the living arrangements of a Medieval noble, even a king and you'll quickly see that just having indoor plumbing and running hot water - never mind air conditioning - puts you far above what they considered luxurious.
With that in mind, we need to be cautious when deciding to live more frugally. Typically, we're told that by living more frugally we can increase our surplus, allowing us to save more. And saving more, we can invest the proceeds such that we will be able to retire early some day. An alternate expression would be that we can achieve "financial independence." Now there's nothing wrong with such an aspiration. After all, financial independence, on the face of it, would put us in a better position to share with the poor, right? But there's a fundamental shift that's taken place when we move our sights from the poor to our own future prosperity. That shift fixes our gaze on ourselves, on our own desires for a level of wealth and freedom. In the end, doesn't that strike you as self-centered?
Rather than focus on ourselves, what we're talking about here is us giving up something or things in order to be able to give more to others. We're not focused on how frugality will benefit us; we're concerned about how our frugality will benefit the poor. In Working Your Way into Heaven, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski defers to Pius XI to help clarify these two sides of the coin of generosity, to help us understand better the simple idea of giving up to give more:
As for our living more frugally such that we get less in order to give more:
We have talked about how we should create surplus in order to share that surplus with the poor. We focused on how we could use our energy, skills, and talents to increase efficiency, and thereby production, in our chosen field such that the total "pie" grows larger, providing more to share with the poor. Such efforts would be, no doubt, admirable. But here we've turned from creating more to using less.
Using less hits home much harder and much more immediately. While I can't judge anyone's individual situation, I do know from observation and experience that many, if not most, of us in the West, especially in the U.S. would not suffer from an increase in frugality. Many of us live a life style that exceeds that of much of the rest of the world. Indeed, all of us live far above the living standards of the rich and powerful of the past. Just take a moment to read about the living arrangements of a Medieval noble, even a king and you'll quickly see that just having indoor plumbing and running hot water - never mind air conditioning - puts you far above what they considered luxurious.
With that in mind, we need to be cautious when deciding to live more frugally. Typically, we're told that by living more frugally we can increase our surplus, allowing us to save more. And saving more, we can invest the proceeds such that we will be able to retire early some day. An alternate expression would be that we can achieve "financial independence." Now there's nothing wrong with such an aspiration. After all, financial independence, on the face of it, would put us in a better position to share with the poor, right? But there's a fundamental shift that's taken place when we move our sights from the poor to our own future prosperity. That shift fixes our gaze on ourselves, on our own desires for a level of wealth and freedom. In the end, doesn't that strike you as self-centered?
Rather than focus on ourselves, what we're talking about here is us giving up something or things in order to be able to give more to others. We're not focused on how frugality will benefit us; we're concerned about how our frugality will benefit the poor. In Working Your Way into Heaven, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski defers to Pius XI to help clarify these two sides of the coin of generosity, to help us understand better the simple idea of giving up to give more:
Pius XI in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno tells us that if, when our own needs have been satisfied according to our station in life, there are still goods left over (savings, capital, and similar commodities), we do not have complete freedom to do what we like with them; we have a duty to emply them to create new possibilities of work for our neighbor. The Christian spirit requires us to curb our selfishness in the possession and use of goods; it demands broader thinking and greater sensitivity to the needs of society.That covers how we could and should use our energy, skills, and talents to increase efficiency, and thereby production, in our chosen field such that the total "pie" grows larger, providing more to share with the poor.
As for our living more frugally such that we get less in order to give more:
In the encyclical Divini Redemptoris, Pius XI reminds us of the duty of limiting one's own need, of returning to more frugal conditions of life, so as only to acquire the means of giving social help. To forget oneself for love of one's neighbor, to limit luxury, so shocking side-by-side with poverty: this is the new task. Our life should be simplified, set free from the superfluity of things and artificial needs that are swamping us. Life must triumph over the state of its impoverished surroundings.Let's all pray for the grace to both create more give up more in order to help those in need.
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