A Survey, WWJD Turmoil, and Over 2,800 Billionaires

Anyone 35 or older should remember the “WWJD” bracelet trend that swept the U.S. for a time in the 1990s. It’s too bad the trend died out.  The question “What Would Jesus Do?” is a good way to think about how we should be living our lives.

A Brief Backgrounder

The “What Would Jesus Do” question came to prominence in the late 1890s.  A Congregationalist minister at the Central Church of Topeka named Charles M. Sheldon began reading a series of stories he wrote as his Sunday sermons to his congregation.  The stories were later published as a book with the subtitle “What Would Jesus Do?” The book became a bestseller in the United States and England.

Some 100 year later, in 1989, a youth minister at the Calvary Reformed Church in Holland, MI named Janie Tinklenberg read Sheldon’s book. She was very much taken with the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?”  She turned it into an acronym and designed WWJD friendship bracelets for her youth group.  The bracelets were a reminder to make moral decisions. The idea spread, and WWJD quickly found its way onto coffee mugs, t-shirts, jewelry, and more.

The Survey

The WWJD question often pops into my mind when I’m trying to decide how to respond in a specific situation.  Sometimes the situation is important but oftentimes it is rather inconsequential.  One such inconsequential situation occurred recently.

I had ordered the wrong battery from Dell for my laptop, so I contacted Dell for a Return Authorization.  A day later I received an email from a Dell customer care person with the information I needed.  Two days later I received an email from Dell asking me to “rate the interaction” with the customer care rep.

The survey said the rep was a young lady located in Hyderabad, India.  The ‘American me’ slightly recoiled.  As an American, I have a problem with U.S. Company’s offshoring jobs that could be filled and performed by Americans.  The ‘Catholic me,’ however, immediately said “Time out! Let’s think about this.  WWJD?”

Inner Turmoil

It seems silly that such an innocuous little survey would cause any kind of angst.  But there it was – the conflicts between a globalistic and a nationalistic perspective and the teachings of my Faith.

The American me did not want to support an Indian-based company when so many of my neighbors here in the U.S. are out of work thanks to stupid decrees by inept, tyrannical governors and mayors.  But the Catholic me didn’t want to ignore a young lady who was just trying to do her job.

So I asked myself, “WWJD?”

The answer came quickly.  The young lady is trying to earn a living.  She is probably happy to have a job.  It’s not her fault Dell outsourced its customer service function.  So I filled out the survey.

I gave the young lady four stars because she had done her job in a satisfactory manner.  I also stated as much in the comments.  (She did not get five stars because there was nothing exceptional or extraordinary in the way she emailed me or provided the return instructions.)

A Globalistic or Nationalistic Perspective

That really should have been the end of the story.  But by then I was thinking about outsourcing, economics, the globalist vs. nationalist perspective, and Catholic Social Teaching.

The young lady had zero input in to the decision to outsource Dell’s customer service function. She was probably thankful such a decision had been made because it provided her with employment.  At the same time, it’s likely that someone in the U.S. lost his or her job as a result of the decision.

Cost savings was likely the primary reason for Dell’s decision.  I doubt Dell simply wanted to provide employment opportunities to people in India.  I also doubt anyone at Dell had Catholic Social teaching in mind when the outsourcing decision was made.  And I doubt anyone asked WWJD?  The decider(s) probably had not even read Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (Social Concern).  The crux of the encyclical is summed up in section 38:

“The economically weaker countries, or those still at subsistence level, must be enabled, with the assistance of other peoples and of the international community, to make a contribution of their own to the common good with their treasures of humanity and culture, which otherwise would be lost for ever.”

India is not one of the “weaker” countries.  It was the fifth largest economy in the world in 2019.  Providing employment to someone in India while taking away employment from someone in the U.S. is hardly in keeping with Catholic social teaching. The dignity of persons is more important than profit.

Some Economics

Had Dell figured out a way to outsource to the Niger, Haiti, Liberia, Malawi, or Burundi (five of the poorest countries in the world based on GDP per capita) without doing away with any American jobs, I’d give them a big thumbs up.  But they did not.

So how, and to what extent, should well off countries, and companies in those countries, be helping poor countries?  And how can they best help the people in those countries?  These are tough questions.

As Sollicitudo Rei Socialis states,

“The Church does not have technical revolutions to offer for the problem of underdevelopment as such, as Pope Paul VI already affirmed in his Encyclical [Populorum Progressio]. For the Church does not propose economic and political systems or programs . . .”

The Church leaves it up to world leaders to devise the economic and political systems or programs that insure a fair and equitable distribution of the goods of the world.  And so far the free market economy has not been doing too bad a job.

According to Worldvision.com, in 1990 almost 36 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty.  Today that number has dropped to 9.2 percent.

At the same time, as Pope Francis and the preceding three popes have all said, more needs to be / can be / should be done.  I agree.  We – meaning all human beings – should be helping the poor and disadvantaged.  WWJD?  You and I can help by donating money to charities.  Or we can help by volunteering our time to charities that help the poor and disadvantaged.   We should not, however, outsource our individual obligations to the government.

Money and Billionaires

The recent elections show how unequal things are.  Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and their respective political parties raised a whopping $3.65 billion just to try to win the election.  That’s a lot of money.  (And that doesn’t include all the “dark money” that millionaire and billionaire liberals spent in the battleground states.)  There are 48 countries in the world with annual GDPs that are less than $3.65 billion.

(Note that the website WorldPopulationReview.com rank orders 211 countries in the world by GDP.  But the UN says there are only 195 countries/sovereign states in the world.)

But there are also 2,825 billionaires in the world with “a combined net worth” in 2019 of $9.4 trillion.  This exceeds the combined GDP of all but the countries of the United States and China.  Jeff Bezos alone (#1 on the list of billionaires) has a net worth that exceeds the annual GDP of 157 countries.  Some of these billionaires even profess to be Catholics/Christians.

And it turns out that the 10 richest men in the world each have a net worth that is greater than the GDP of 141 of the 211 countries.

Far be it from me to try to tell people what to do with their wealth. But it does seem that people so well off could do a lot by contributing to the common good in developing countries.  As Luke 12:48 says, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Solidarity, not Socialism

I am against any kind of economic system that mandates the redistribution of wealth or unfairly taxes the rich.  People should be able to keep as much of the money they legally earn by the sweat of their brow or the gift of their intellect, as allowed by a fair and equitable system of taxation.  (Governments should not play Robin Hood.  They are terrible at it.)

But as the old adage says, you can’t take it with you. The rich man in The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus found this out too late.

And as Sollicitudo Rei Socialis points out:

“Solidarity helps us to see the “other” – whether a person, people or nation – not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our “neighbor,” a “helper,” to be made a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which all are equally invited by God.”

WWJD

Maybe there needs to be more than just a Council for Inclusive Capitalism under the guidance of Pope Francis.  Perhaps there should be a Council of Billionaires that is under his guidance as well.  Just imagine what could happen if all the billionaires pooled their surplus wealth with an aim toward eradicating poverty.

Maybe those 2,285 billionaires should be asking themselves, “What would Jesus do?”  And maybe that’s also a question more of us should be asking ourselves each and every day, too.

More Charitable Giving

There are many worthwhile charities in operation throughout the world.  Here are just three of them.

Orphan Grain Train (OGT), headquartered in Norfolk, NE is one such worthwhile charity.  What makes OGT rather unique is that it scores a perfect 100 (four stars) in financial as well as in accountability and transparency on Charity Navigator.  What’s more the CEO of OGT, Pastor Ray Wilke, receives no compensation for his work.

Unbound, located in Kansas City, KS, is another good charity.  It scores 91.76 at Charity Navigator (also four stars).  Unbound’s CEO receives an annual compensation of $220,614.

Food for the Poor, located in Coconut Creek, FL, is also a good charity.  It is, however, somewhat troubling that the CEO of this organization receives $445,463 in annual compensation.  This does not take away from the good work the charity does but it is a bit disconcerting.  Charity Navigator gives the organization a rating of 86.17 (three stars).

(Note that other being a donor, the author has no connection to OGT, Unbound, or Food for the Poor.)