The Stock Market is Not the Measure of Economic Health

It is high time we stopped measuring the health of the economy by the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P and the Nasdaq no more represent the health of the economy than a duck represents the Mona Lisa.

Since the Great Depression, the stock market has been used as the gauge of economic wellbeing in the United States.  According to a recent article in the New York Times, the difference between then and now is the stock market’s distance to the reality of most Americans. In the market collapse of 1929 the S&P fell 86% and was viewed by many as the precipitating event of the Great Depression.  The privation of the American people and the crash of the stock market were forever connected in American consciousness.

Today the stock market does not represent what is happening in the lives of the average American. In April over twenty million people lost their jobs, even as stocks kept rising. The largest corporations in America tend to be multinational, have huge stores of cash and wide access to bond markets. This makes them far more resilient to the changes in economic health than small businesses and the average American. In addition, stock ownership is held primarily by the richest segments of the population who have greater resources to bring to times of social change.

Whenever people are one or two paychecks away from needing a food pantry, rental assistance, utility forbearance and increases in unemployment insurance and SNAP benefits, it is a sure sign that the economy is not working. The health of any economy is actually measured by how the poorest people are doing, how the most vulnerable are cared for and what social safety nets are in place all the time for low wage workers.

While the nation’s largest corporations continue to receive billions of dollars in bailouts, the poorest of the poor are facing homelessness, loss of health care, unemployment and in some cases the very real possibility of starvation. This is happening in the United States of America in the year 2020.

If the Corona virus has taught us anything, it is that our health care system is fundamentally broken and our financial system is rigged to benefit the rich. The lesson is driven home when we realize that those who have kept this country going are NOT the CEO’s and shareholders, but health care workers, grocery store clerks, sanitation workers, housekeeping staff and other traditionally low wage workers who often depend on social safety nets under the best of circumstances.

There is no place in the United States where a minimum wage worker can afford to rent an apartment, much less pay for food, medical care and other life needs, all the while putting something away for retirement. They often have nothing to put away for weekly groceries. Under the best of circumstances many people choose between paying their rent and eating, paying the light bill and buying medication.

The pandemic continues to disproportionately impact communities of color, elderly and communal living facilities and Native American communities. These are the undervalued and under-represented populations of our country. Their plights are often invisible and their cries for justice go unheeded. Racism, ageism and all the other “isms” that make us into “us” and “them” are widening the gap between what is needed and what is received.

In Liberation Theology, a major premise is the preferential option for the poor. It takes from Scripture the message that throughout both Testaments, God is primarily concerned for the well-being of the poor. Further, it postulates that the gospel can only be truly understood through the eyes of the poor. Therefore, the poor must be empowered economically and politically to participate in the structures of society and to help reshape them into something more just and equitable. Liberation Theology had its birth in South America but its premises are applicable to the United States as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

In the first Testament, every fifty years was to be a year of Jubilee; debts were cancelled, property was returned to its original owners and the balance of society was restored. In the second Testament, Jesus spoke more about the poor and needy than he did any other group of people. And the powers of his time would not tolerate it. He posed too great a threat to the status quo. Jesus wasn’t crucified for blessing babies and bouncing children on his knee, he was put to death as an enemy of the state because he was too radical and people were starting to believe his message. It was only a matter of time before the poor rose up and claimed a more equitable distribution of goods and services. The power brokers of the time made sure he was put to death before that happened.

We would do well to adopt the principles of Liberation Theology as a statement of protest against the powers and principalities of which Paul spoke in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans. Standing with the poorest and most vulnerable members of society is a benchmark of the faithfulness of the Christian tradition. American Christianity has a moral responsibility to be a prophetic voice for the poor and disenfranchised, not just during a pandemic, but every day.