The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man. Joel 1:12
Blessed is the man who endures temptation! When he has passed the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those that love him. ?James 1:12
On November 24 the citizens of Switzerland will go to the polls to vote on a referendum to their constitution that would limit executive pay to twelve times worker pay. It’s based on a Swiss?1:12 salary ratio between CEO and employee compensation. ?Business groups have poured money into the campaign against it. ?Only a month ago the opinion polls showed that the public was split on the issue.
Today, after the rich warned that passage of the measure would lead to an exodus of corporations (also called “taking their ball AND your ball and going home) coupled with several “studies” funded by these same corporations predicting the end of the world, or at least the end of Switzerland, has led to the expectation that the measure will be defeated. ?Just goes to show that Europeans are as gullible as Americans when it comes to believing propaganda.
This is their argument, translated from German, to explain why the rich should be allowed to continue looting the companies they work for:
If today the internationally coveted but very flexible rich taxpayers pay tax on their salaries abroad in the future, only SMEs and ordinary citizens will be left to plug these holes.?We all are the ones who will pay the extremely high price for the adventures of the Young Socialists.
They argue that reducing income inequality and corporate looting will weaken the social safety net of their country. Their logic is currently those stealing the wealth of the nation at least pay high taxes and that if they are no longer allowed to steal such large sums the government won’t be able to collect the tax. Or that those “high paying” jobs will move to another country and that country will then collect taxes on the stolen money. ?They don’t word it quite that way but once you strip away all the verbiage, the threat of collapsing Swiss society is clear.
So it looks as if this is going to fail, and that the “messaging” from the very rich has scared enough people away from the issue. From a moral perspective, what those of us in the world who are not rich have been living through, is what Joel 1:12 described. Our wealth has “languished” and our happiness “dried up” because we have not properly or morally managed our global economy. ?The 1:12 ratio is an attempt to make the modern world a little fairer and to make the system work again for enough people to justify having the system. Because the path we are on now leads to collapse.
Another implied argument against the 1:12 movement is that our economic rulers do not have the self-control described in James 1:12, “Blessed is the person who resists temptation.” ?This in our world today seems to be the temptation of the elite to wreck the whole world for ever more riches, while they destroy their souls, steal our happiness, and ultimately make their own riches worthless, due to the increased potential for violent social change, radical environmental change, and other factors driven by their inability to SHARE.
The last quote isn’t a 1:12 quote like the other two (Joel and James) but I think it applies and also provides a good reason WHY the referendum should pass in order to save the rich from themselves.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Matthew 19:24
So let’s ask the Swiss to save the rich and maybe us along with them!
Edited by SS
