Celebrity Clergy, Madness of Modern Capitalism

                                Fashionable Clergy

John Wesley, William Hamilton (1751-1801)

Photo Credit: National Portrait Gallery, London [CC BY-NC-ND]

…Since [Justin] Bieber embraced evangelical Christianity a few years ago, celebrity-connected pastors have entered the mainstream. These include Chad Veach …Carl Lentz…and Rich Wilkerson…They amass huge audiences and Instagram followings and rock Bieber-inspired wardrobes.

Scrutinising the pictures of pastors at work has reaped rich rewards. Rather literally, the most expensive spot being a pair of Air Yeezy 2 ‘Red Octobers’ worn by pastor John Gray, with a resale value of $5,611.

…Under fire over his $1,980 Gucci backpack and $794 Traxedos track pants, Veach is the only man of (expensive) cloth to attempt a comeback so far, posting that he didn’t pay for his outfit. He quickly thought better of it and deleted it.

(The Observer, 14.4.201)

Doesn’t the Lord work in very mysterious ways?



Modern Capitalism

Turning Point, Alexander Johnston (1815-1891)

Photo Credit: Croydon Art Collection [CC BY-NC]

…The financial crisis of 2007-08 led to bank bailouts, austerity, a decade of slow growth, shattered faith in the capacity of the free enterprise economy to produce results that were either fair or efficient. The fruits of modern capitalism seemed to be increased inequality, stagnant wages for median income workers, a transfer of market power from consumers to producers.

The picture is the same in most developed economies. In curiously convergent ways, capitalism’ newly exposed frailties have been responsible both for the success of Donald Trump, an arch capitalist who traded on working-class voters’ frustrations with the increasing precariousness of their livelihoods and access to quality healthcare and at the same time the rising appeal of socialism in America, which has ascended to surprising pre-eminence in the Democratic Party. And, of course, in countries like Italy and France the failure of capitalism to generate much growth has helped swell support for populist parties.

…We may not be in a slump but the distribution of benefits and rewards is not seen to be efficient or fair. And the insecurities induced by the modern economy – fiercely competitive global markets and rapid advances in technology – leave those without the skills and resources necessary to survive sinking deeper into oblivion.

(Gerard Baker, The Times, 4.4.2019)

You need to go back much further than 2007-08.

*The chief executive of British Gas – Centrica - pocketed a £2.4m pay packet despite the firm losing hundreds of thousands of customers as it embarked on a major jobs cull.

Ian Conn’s total pay rose 44 per cent, from £1.68m in 2017, as he reaped the rewards of an annual bonus, according to the company’s annual report.

It means that the energy boss is paid around 72 times more than the typical Centrica employee, who earns £33,718 on the firm’s lower quartile scale.

…Centrica announced last year that 4,000 jobs are to be axed under a ramped-up efficiency programme, the majority of which will affect both its UK home and business units over the next three years.

(The i, 9.4.2019)

                 And on it goes.

Mammon, George Frederick Watts (1817-1904)

Photo Credit: Tate [CC BY-NC-ND]

*A multibillionaire private equity boss, Steve Schwarzman, has blamed income “insufficiency” rather than inequality for the widening gap between rich and poor.

The chief executive of Blackstone and a former Trump adviser who Forbes estimates to be worth $13.7bn (£10.5bn), joined a growing list of super-rich bankers and financiers to voice concern about the growing divide in incomes as he outlined on CNBC what he called a “Marshall Plan” to help ordinary workers…[It] would scrap taxes for teachers, introduce a higher minimum wage and offer technical training for people who did not go to college.

His decision to address inequality follows intervention by a number of other billionaires who have begun to worry publicly about the widening gap between rich and poor.

…Warren Buffet, the investment guru, and Ray Dalio, the hedge fund billionaire, have also spoken out about income equality. Dalio called it a “national emergency”, pointing out that the percentage of children who grew up to earn more than their parents had fallen from 90% in 1970 to 50% today. Buffet, third on Forbe’s 2019 billionaires list, has repeatedly called for the wealthy to pay more tax and in 2006 committed to giving away all of his Berkshire Hathaway share to philanthropic causes.

(The Guardian, 19.4.2019)

                                Why not consider a maximum wage?

*An heir to the Walt Disney fortune has described the $65.6m (£50.5m) paid to the company’s chief executive, Bob Iger, as “insane.”

Abigail Disney, an Emmy award-winning film-maker and grand-daughter of the Disney co-founder Roy Disney, said it was outrageous that Iger was paid 1,424 times more than the firm’s average pay for an employee last year. Iger’s 2018 pay package increased by 80% from $36.3m in 2017, while he collected $43.9m in 2016.

“Let me be very clear. I like Bob Iger,” Disney tweeted on Sunday. “I do NOT speak for my family but only for myself. Other than owning shares (not that many) I have no more say in what happens there than anyone else. But by any objective measure a pay ratio over a thousand is insane.”

The tweets followed a “humane capitalism” speech she gave last week, in which she said Iger was a “good man” who had performed well at Disney and deserved a bonus, but she warned that such huge pay deals “had a corrosive effect on society”.

“When he got his bonus last year, I did the math, and figured out that he could have given personally, out of pocket, a 15% raise to everyone who worked at Disneyland, and still walked away with $10m,” she said at the Fast Company event in New York. “So there’s a point at which there’s just too much going around the top of the system into this class of people who – I’m sorry this is radical – have too much money. There is such a thing.”

Disney said that, from speaking to workers in Disneyland, it was very clear to her that they deserved and needed a raise and that many of them were struggling to pay for essentials.

…While praising Iger’s leadership, she said the company was not doing enough to reward those who kept it running every day. Specifically, she called on executives to give employees raise, rather than one-off bonuses. A raise, she said, would improve the living standards of workers while having little to no impact on top earners.

“Maybe they can’t afford a third home, or another boat,” she tweeted. “I’m not being facetious here. That’s the kind of sacrifice we’d be talking about for high-level execs.”

Responding to criticism of her for taking a stand against excessive pay, Disney said: “Pointing out the incongruity of pay at the top and pay at the bottom provokes a reaction because it so violates our innate sense of fairness it is impossible not to wince.”

…Disney, a film maker and activist on issues of corporate social responsibility, is a member of Patriotic Millionaires, which is calling for higher taxes on the wealthy. She said she had given away $70m since she turned 21

(The Guardian, 23.4.2019)

Abigail Disney, why don’t you enter politics? But don’t apologise for saying too many at the top have too much money. That’s not being radical.