Eroding allegiance and trust due to desire for financial gain

Eroding allegiance and trust due to desire for financial gain

The current state of deteriorating values and lack of morals has brought about a state of mistrust in any government official or corporate executives, greed and betrayal is rampant.

We have been infected with the mores of our age that regard personal finances as too sensitive a matter to be broached outside the confines of the cash dispensing confessional.

The system of mutual trust. ..... the gentlemanly ideal was not merely a cynical tool used to gain monopolistic control ... One has allegiance to the acquisition and maintenance of the truth. ... these positive characteristics within those who desire to join the profession

"No-one can serve two masters.

By personifying wealth as a slave-owner in competition with morals.

Possessions can, quite literally, 'possess'. Its ability to act as a demonic force therefore means that wealth cannot be treated as morally neutral when interacting with our fallen human natures. It is apt to tempt us to evil and facilitates the satisfaction of other sinful desires. We, naturally, crave to compromise between the service of our duty and the seduction of wealth.

Precautionary saving, insurance and holding on to wealth are motivated by the instinctive human desire for material security and certainty in the future.

The accumulation of riches can not only lead to the withering of morals in this providential care but also results in the self-reliance and pride of unregeneracy.

Wealth ultimately fails to deliver. For instance, despite being assured with such reassuring epithets as 'secured', 'bond', 'index-linked' and 'guaranteed', every financial or real asset involves some degree of risk - inflation erodes, debtors default, markets crash, governments renege, thieves steal, companies collapse, currencies devalue, assets depreciate, taxes rise, wars ravage, disasters strike, crooks defraud and banks fold. It is therefore pointless to search for the totally safe asset and foolish to rely on wealth as the ultimate source of one's security. Risk is ubiquitous. Also:

Since the completely safe asset does not exist, a person can never accumulate enough to feel totally safe. The search for such security is a chasing after the wind - we are never satiated, no matter how much we possess. It is wiser not to begin the pursuit.

Eventually 'life assurance' is something of a misnomer, for wealth makes no difference beyond the grave:

"Our life is but an empty show, naked we come and naked go; both for the humble and the proud, there are no pockets in a shroud."

"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."

While mutual dependence in times of trial among the faithful is to be welcomed, it is irresponsible for the spendthrift deliberately to place him- or herself in a position of vulnerability. It runs contrary to the teaching that the faithful should work diligently in order to avoid dependence on others and be in a position to assist the needy. This liberating aspect of saving was a favorite theme of moralists:

"A store of savings is to the working man as a barricade against want; it secures him a footing, and enables him to wait ... until better days come round ... But the man who is always hovering on the verge of want is in a state not far removed from that of slavery. He is in no sense his own master, but is in constant peril of falling under the bondage of others, and accepting the terms they dictate to him."

Today, this would not just apply to the need to avoid dependence on personal charity but also on the state.

Ensuring public confidence and in the Integrity of our government and public officials.

This sense of betrayal or distrust erodes allegiance and encourages cynicism. And once lost, trust - and the commitment that stems from it - is hard to rebuild. ... Fairly and respectfully, no organization will gain their emotional allegiance. .... As we shiver under the dark clouds of financial uncertainty,

Allegiance to a political and financial-gains...

Compiled by: Yj Draiman