I usually worked from about 5pm or 6 pm to 10 pm on Friday and Saturday nights. Across the street from the liquor store was a sporting goods store that Dick Korbel owned. Dick and his wife lived over the store and in front of the second story windows facing the street was this intricate pattern of iron work that must have housed the nests of 3/4 of the sparrows in New Prague. Dick was a good sort and usually on Friday nights he would walk across Main Street to the liquor store and buy a 6 pack of 3.2 beer and chew the fat.
It was the year that New Prague was celebrating a hundred years of existence with a huge parade. Because of the extra crowds in town, I was asked to come in early to work at the liquor store. I was working alongside a wonderful older gentleman by the name of Fred Beuch. Fred, a long time resident from the general area, was a source of great stories about New Prague, Heidelberg, Union Hill, and Montgomery. The parade was in full swing and there was no one in the store, so Fred and I watched the parade from our vantage point from within the liquor store. There were any number of floats, local and state celebrities, marching bands, local churches and clubs parading down Main Street with huge crowds gathered on either side. A group of riders on horses paused in front of the store, obviously members of some horse club, and as horses are prone to do, one horse took advantage of the pause in action to take an enormous dump on Main Street. Fred remarked, "Horsehockey! (well Fred used a more common, amusing, and less delicate expression for horse poop) said the sparrow. It's time to eat!!" I turned to Fred and said, "What?!" Fred repeated himself. I asked for an explanation. Fred told me that horses eat a lot of oats and other grains and when they take a dump, the birds fly down to pick the undigested oats and grain out of the horse's poop, and eat it. I remarked on how gross that was and as I was doing so, all the sparrows that lived in those nests on Dick Korbel's second story flew down to Main Street and began to eat the undigested oats etc from the poop the parade horse had crapped. Fred, as always, was spot on.
10 years later, I was listening to a program on Minnesota Public Radio that was talking about the economic theory of Trickle Down Economics. Trickle Down Economics states that the more and more the rich accumulate, their excess wealth will "trickle down" to the social casts lower than they, creating jobs and stimulating the economy. This was not something that originated with Ronnie Reagan in the 1980's but a theory that has been perpetuated throughout history. In the late 1800's, Trickle Down Economics was called "Horse and Sparrow Economics," literally that which Fred Beuch had talked about the day of the New Prague Centennial Parade. The rich cast eats excessively (money) and poops out the excess money for the rest of society to pick through or over which to fight. Isn't it amazing how well nature provides the perfect metaphor for human generated theories?
As an American society, we have been beaten over the head since the time of President Reagan with this whole Trickle Down Theory of economics by the GOP that has in practice not worked. Well, one point of clarification, it has worked, however, only for one segment of the American population and that is the very rich. The gulf between the very rich and the rest of the nation is growing obscenely greater. The question is how does the theory of Trickle Down Economics stack up against the teachings of Jesus? The parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar, which we heard on the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time (last Sunday).
In the parable we hear of the rich man, who is nameless, and the beggar, Lazarus, that lies outside the door of the rich man. In the story we hear that the rich man dines very well, while the beggar outside his door does not even get to eat one little bit of the scraps that falls from the table onto the rich man's floor. The only company that poor starving beggar has outside the rich man's door are a pack of feral dogs who come to lick the sores that cover the beggar's body. It comes to pass that both the rich man and the poor man die on the same night. The rich man's after life is spent in hell where he is cursed with eternal thirst, while the beggar, Lazarus, is embraced by the prophet Moses and is blessed with an eternity of abundance where all his needs and cares are met. The rich man cries out in torment for a drop of water, but his request is denied sternly by Moses. Even though Lazarus, filled with compassion, might want to comply with the rich man's cries, he could not because of the great abyss separating hell from heaven. The rich man then begs Moses to go to his siblings and warn them not to live a life of excess while neglecting the poor around them. But even this, Moses denies because even were the ancient prophets resurrected and went to the rich man's siblings, his siblings would still refuse to listen. The gospel concludes with Jesus saying that you cannot serve both God and wealth.
On the Tuesday evening prayer of the second week of the 4 week cycle of psalms, we encounter Psalm 49. This ancient psalm prefigures the parable that Jesus spoke as recorded in the gospel of Luke. "In riches, humanity lacks wisdom. They are like the beasts that are destroyed."
From both this parable and from this psalm, Trickle Down Economics does not reflect the justice of God. Jesus tells us over and over in the gospels that it is only in giving that we receive. If we want to be great in the eyes of God we must be the servant to others. The Last Judgement scene in Matthew 25, specifically states that it is in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, welcoming the stranger, nursing the ill and so on that we find our way to heaven. Hording leads us as it does the rich man in the parable only to eternal torment.
Unlike Bill Gates and a couple of others, very few of those listed as the wealthiest in Forbes magazine give generously of their wealth to those more in need, much less allow their wealth to trick down to the unemployed masses around them. It is just not good business, is it? Greed only begets more greed, not generosity. Very few monarchs in history were known to be philanthropists. Louie XVI and Marie Antoinette, along with many of the French nobility ended up losing their heads for the words, "Let them eat cake!" One of the most ill-timed slogans of all time. Rather than talk about "trickle down," it is more that of "trickle up," economics to which many in the GOP refer.
In closing, there is a story about a rich man who wanted to take his wealth with him when he died. So on his death bed, he ordered his servants to gather up all his riches and place them in the attic so that when he went to heaven he could pick the riches up on his way. The rich man dies and his wife quickly orders the servants to go up into the attic and see if the riches were still there. They go up to the attic, look, and then return to the rich man's wife. She asks," Well?" They tell here that all the riches were still in the attic. She said, "I knew it! I knew it! I told the old fool to put his riches down in the basement of the house."
Psalm 49
Hear this, all you peoples!
Give ear, all who inhabit the world,
3 You of lowly birth or high estate,
rich and poor together.
4 My mouth shall speak words of wisdom,
my heart shall offer insights.a
5 I will turn my ear to a riddle,*
expound my question on a lyre.
I
6 Why should I fear in evil days,
with the iniquity of my assailants
surrounding me,
7 Of those who trust in their wealth
and boast of their abundant riches?b
8 * No
man can ransom even a brother,
or pay to God his own ransom.c
9 The redemption of his soul is costly;
and he will pass away forever.
10 Will he live on forever, then,
and never see the Pit of Corruption?
11 Indeed, he will see that the wise die,
and the fool will perish together with the
senseless,d
and they leave their wealth to others.e
12 Their tombs are their homes forever,
their dwellings through all generations,
“They named countries after themselves”
13—but man does not abide in splendor.
He is like the beasts—they perish.f
This is the way of those who trust in
themselves,
and the end of those who take pleasure in
their own mouth.
Selah
15 Like a herd of sheep they will be put into Sheol,
and Death will shepherd them.
Straight to the grave they descend,
where their form will waste away,
Sheol will be their palace.
16 But God will redeem my life,
Selah
17 Do not fear when a man becomes rich,
when the wealth of his house grows great.
18 At his death he will not take along anything,
his glory will not go down after him.h
19 During his life his soul uttered blessings;
“They will praise you, for you do well for
yourself.”
20 But he will join the company of his fathers,
never again to see the light.i
21 In his prime, man does not understand.
He is like the beasts—they perish. (Psalm 49, NAB)
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