How the actions of this poor widow challenges a slightly irreverant, Linux-using, business school educated Christian. And his money.
It seems like everybody, myself included, is worrying about job security today. A number of my friends have lost their jobs. Yours and mine may very well be in jeopardy. Sure, there are some glimmers of hope on Wall Street. But the stock market is what they call a “leading indicator”. Jobs recovery will surely [...]
Posted on April 14th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: chasing happiness, diary worthy, economic theory | No Comments »
Remember that age-old Aesops fable, The Ant and The Grasshopper? The version I was told as a child depicted the Grasshopper singing and dancing during the lazy summer months, while the Ant fastidiously worked and stored away food. When winter came around, the Ant had food but the Grasshopper went hungry. Moral [...]
Posted on February 20th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: church, economic theory, societal concerns | No Comments »
The Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article last week, titled “The Mystery Worshipper“. Of course, you’ll need to flip past the doom-and-gloom headlines of the stock market free fall and the collapse Iceland’s financial system (the Icelandic krona ceased trading on the global currency market). This WSJ article takes us away from this global [...]
Posted on October 15th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: Christian tradition, church, economic theory, societal concerns | 3 Comments »
There’s a movement among church consultants to treat churches as a business. Personally, I disagree. But, who knows? I might be wrong. What if God intended churches to rival multinational corporations? Who’s to say that that my humble 60-attendee community church, MBCC, shouldn’t be vying for global notoriety like Microsoft, Starbucks, or AIG?
Since I’m not [...]
Posted on October 14th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: church, economic theory, societal concerns | 2 Comments »
We humans are capable of a very strange thing: revenge. We seek to inflict harm on others at a great cost to ourselves.
Revenge is a very peculiar behavior. Selfishness makes sense. So does altruism. But why would we choose to harm ourselves just to hurt another? Justice? Hatred? Heat-of-the-moment passion? Can there be a rational [...]
Posted on October 1st, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: economic theory, societal concerns | 5 Comments »
I wanted to write something thoughtful and intelligent about the credit crisis. Really. I did.
I was thinking about discussing the justice (or injustice) about this government bailout plan. There’s a lot of anger focused at Wall Street. And there’s the Credit Default Swap (CDS). What are they, and how can they almost single-handedly wipe out [...]
Posted on September 24th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: brazen, diary worthy, economic theory, societal concerns | 6 Comments »
I’ve taught church Sunday school for years. For the most part, Sunday school teachers are glorified babysitters. Our job is to keep the kids entertained, so their parents can have an hour of peace and quiet during church. Still, I feel obligated to teach them a little bit about God or morals or something Christian-like [...]
Posted on September 10th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: Christian tradition, church, diary worthy, economic theory, societal concerns | 4 Comments »
Earlier this week, I published a blog post detailing my economic discussions with Dr. Hickey, who is both my boss’s boss and a self-described old school hippie. After I published my last post, Dr. Hickey’s brother, Jeff Hickey, commented on my site. He kindly pointed out that I left myself off of the diagram and [...]
Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: church, economic theory | 4 Comments »
My boss’ boss is a successful Silicon Valley start-up technologist, a self-described old-school hippie, and an outspoken derider of the free market. He often complains about large corporations and capitalistic pigs. We affectionately call him Dr. Hickey.
Last week, it was the football-weekend pricing of a South Bend hotel that prompted Dr. Hickey’s oft-used “greedy corporation” [...]
Posted on August 11th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: chasing happiness, diary worthy, economic theory | 7 Comments »
Union employees at the University of California (UC) campuses were on strike last week. These custodians, bus drivers, and other service employees were, of course, demanding higher pay. According to the union that organized the strike, AFSCME, wage rates for a UC Senior Custodian range from $10.47 to $13.54/hour. “Poverty Wages” is the [...]
Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: economic theory, societal concerns | 2 Comments »