Is Your Religion Your Financial Destiny?

[Lost-in-FL]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/magazine/is-your-religion-your-financial-destiny.html?src=recg

[dkf]

1. Where are the atheists/agnostics?

[Lost-in-FL]

3. There is a "Secular" id mark.

Not sure what it represents. That could mean about "anything". :shrug:

[rurallib]

2. where are the non-religious?

or atheists or agnostics?

[LiberalLoner]

4. I really wonder if part of this effect is due to geographic distribution of

many religions. For instance, Lutherans are largely found in the upper mid-west. Baptists and Pentecostals are largely found in the south. Episcopalians are often found on the east coast, from the DC area on north.

There are significant differences in the mean incomes between different regions of our nation, and if a religion is concentrated in a region where income is below normal, the members of that religion might also have incomes that are below normal.

[darkstar3]

6. +1

Also, Hindus more often have 2 things going for them:

1. They are usually younger generation immigrants, meaning that either their parents or they themselves came to the US from India, and as such they are striving to succeed.
2. They have a HUGE support network in the form of their hierarchically organized family, which not only provides them with financial backing, but also sets expectations.

I've known several immigrants from India. They were all successful, and they all said that it was mostly because of their families.

[Lost-in-FL]

10. There are lots of arguments in favor of that related to the Reformation, at least in the West

One of my friends just finished her master thesis on Calvinism and how it influenced the creation of the US constitution. It goes on and on touching on the subject of the treatment of the poor in the US. Finally on her long explaination she points to "God and money" and how this marriage is keeping the poor, poorer and the rich richer. I am so looking forward to read her complete argument.

Here is what I could catch from her explaination... long argument I must say; John Calvin was responsible for changing the position on "usury" which for centuries was, in accordance to Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologica" a sin. This new religious interpretation of usury changed dramatically both the economy and the politics of Europe, specially in England. Eventually, a whole field of philosophy in "political economy" or what is today CAPITALISM was born. In addition, because Calvin was a strong believer in pre-determination he believed that If you are a rich person, you were a blessed person, if you are poor... oh well.. that was part of the plan. This is how this marriage of religion and politics played out, by injecting itself in popular culture, etc., etc.

Now, even when our economic structure was brought to us from a "secular" perspective, it all originated from religious dogmatism and the "picking and choosing" of scriptures. I am sure there is a counterargument to this which I would love to hear but to me, makes a lot of sense. It also explains religious conservatives and republican's intolerance for the poor and their rationale that if "people is poor it is because they did something to deserve it or that they don't work hard enough". They forget that millionaires are not rich because they are "blessed" but because they were doing the right thing at the right time or out of sheer luck. They understimate randomness when it comes to success.

Now, if you happen to check the GDP of old colonies under the rule of superpowers adherents to post reformation religions vs those adhering to catholic dogma you can clearly see the influence of religion in economics! I learned this from a book long ago by John Kay "Culture and Prosperity". Kay point out that the GDP of countries colonized by Northern European countries is usually much higher than those colonized under the power of those under Catholicism. That explains why South Africa does better off than Northern African countries that were colonized by Spain for example. It also shows how the USA and Canada compares to the rest of the America (Latin America), etc.

:shrug:

[LiberalLoner]

12. Very interesting! the reformation was originally lead by Martin Luther, and

Calvin came later, quite a bit later from my understanding.

Luther (and Lutheranism) hews MUCH more closely to Catholicism than the later religions that were off-shoots of the original reformation.

In fact, ask any "born agains" and they will consider Lutheranism simply a branch of Catholicism. (And neither denominations are considered Christian by the born-agains.)

[no_hypocrisy]

5. It isn't about faith. It's about social networking in your religious organization.

You know your fellow congregants/compatriots and trust them. They throw you some business and clients and you reciprocate.

[dkf]

7. That doesn't necessarily explain "hindu"

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Good point.

[dimbear]

13. Darkstar has most of it. The rest of it is you need a degree for an H1B. n/t

[dimbear]

14. Left out Orthodox Jews, coming in at an impressive zero.

Let's be fair to all.

[bengalherder]

8. Left out pagans too

Although some belong to unitarian congregations, so I guess that counts for a few of 'em.

[laconicsax]

9. Correlation...causation...you know.

There are numerous factors at work here and it's unlikely that religion is one of them.

[LAGC]

15. That does it! I'm becoming a Reform Jew.

I will report to my local synagogue next Sunday.