Twenty-one trillion dollars are stashed away in off-shore bank accounts worldwide, by just 92,00 people. That's just 0.001 per cent of the world's people holding assets greater than the combined GDP of both the USA and Japan. Now this really isn't fair.
These figures are quoted not in 'Lefty Today' or 'Marxism for the Minority', but in the highly respectable, 'New Scientist' journal published weekly in the UK. (newscientist.com) The science in question, is of course, psychology, and the editorial ('An Appeal To Fairness' 28 July 2012) gives an account of research in the field of society's attitude to inequality.
Why do we stress out sick people by trying to force them back to work they are demonstrably unable to do, or blame homeless people for their inability to make it - people at the bottom of the pile, struggling in a system weighted against them - whilst remaining silent about this particular obscenity? The NS editorial might be read as a homily in our churches. It wouldn't be though. Too radical perhaps?
The editor is strightforward about his belief that, 'There is no authority to whom we can simply wail about unfairness in the hope of restitution. We are the responsible adults now.' I don't censure him for this; on the contrary, I am delighted that he brings the issue of fairness in our society into prominence, what I do question is why we citizens of faith aren't making more of a noise. Too comfortable perhaps?
Whatever our stance we ARE the responsible adults. We do have a say in what laws shape our society. We can make a difference.
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