Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
Proverbs 21:17 (ESV)
Before Facebook and Twitter, you had to go to a public venue to get in ideological fights to affirm your moral superiority over others. At my Christian college, in the 80s, we had arguments on a bulletin board—literally. It was located in the campus center basement and we tacked notes onto it to express opinions and start fights.
Back then Ron Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hungerwas the guidebook for the socially conscious (or left liberal) Christian college student. David Chilton’s Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt-Manipulators came out as a spirited reply. The second title was never as well-known, though it deserved to be. Whether they’d read one of those books or not, there were often sides on Christian college campuses—students who favored a more activist welfare state (at least) and those who favored a freer market.
We discussed this stuff not just in classes or in the school student newspaper, but often while eating pizza in a dorm room, or while eating chicken wings at the campus fast food joint. Or we would discuss it in the car while we were going out to a rock concert or a restaurant.
We paid for food on many an evening, even though we were all on the college meal plan and had already paid for a meal at the cafeteria.
I don’t think many of us had plastic yet. The debt industry still had some expanding to do. (I remembered being amazed at all the direct mail we were sent right before graduation telling us to buy a new car on credit.) But we still found money to spend.
I bring all this up to point out that our behavior was rather interesting in light of our professed beliefs.
I was told by someone who knew him that Ron Sider lived what he preached. He wanted everyone to get by on $38,000 a year in 80s dollars, if I recall correctly, so that they gave everything else away. This feat required low-budget living and careful planning. It meant living on a tight budget and thus tracking expenses. He did this. It showed up in his lifestyle and behavior.
I opposed the “socialist” agenda with a message about persistence in faithful work, patience, saving, risk-taking, and accepting responsibility for one’s life and the lives of one’s dependents.
And I argued about this over pizza while not having a savings account..
It never occurred to me to point out that none of my leftist student friends as far as I could tell seemed to be even slightly prepared for a life of austerity and budgeting so that they could give away the excess. Despite Sider’s example, only other, richer people seemed to be held responsible for helping the poor. But it also never occurred to me that the small amount of money I earned in college was for any other purpose other than to spend on immediate wants.
Saving and all the rest were for other people or another life. As long as I worked at graduating with a decent GPA, nothing else mattered. I was free to spend and consume. Real economic initiative and responsibility beyond that one duty would wait (I imagined) for when I was in “the real world” with a real job.
I and my ideologically-opposed friends lived exactly the same sort of financial life. We were consumers first, workers second, and savers least of all.
In the nineties, Dave Ramsey began his conferences and radio broadcasts. He was the opposite of Ron Sider in general outlook. But he too wanted people to limit saving for the sake of helping the needy, along with providing for one’s family and future.
Dave Ramsey and Ron Sider had more in common with each other than they did with either group of students.
Many of us who favored the free market, never found that “real job” that paid for everything we wanted with plenty left over to save. Once one has developed the habit of consuming all one’s earnings rather than saving, that habit tends to grow with one’s income. There is never “enough.” The fact that Ramsey has become famous helping people get themselves out of debt is evidence that my story is not unique. Many people increase their consumption more than the increase their income, even if they talk a better game.
Dreams of making a better life for oneself (or at least trying) usually never come true for those who sleepwalk through life.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.
Proverbs 24:33-34; ESV