Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - March 8, 2025
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Faith of Christ and Capitalism, Part 6 - The Need for Growth
  2. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

1. Faith of Christ and Capitalism, Part 6 - The Need for Growth

Investment is an essential component of a capitalist economy. Innovation carries inherent risks, and the production of commodities such as food and merchandise also carries some risk of loss due to weather or other ill fortune. Borrowing without interest is problematic because the lenders will tend to lose money in an environment when the best outcome is a return of their loan and there is always a risk of default. Borrowing with interest is also problematic because, for reasons discussed below, it requires economic growth.

Lending with interest results in those with money acquiring more money over time. This is not a problem as long as, overall, recipients of loans have a favorable return on investment such that, when they repay the loan, they tend to be at least as well off as when they borrowed the money. This will tend to happen in economies that grow at or above the interest rate of the loans. In stagnant or contracting economies, on average those who borrow will tend to lose money, because once the loan is repaid with interest, they will tend to have less than when they started. Over time, money becomes increasingly concentrated among those capable of lending money.

What if those with money choose not to lend it but rather invest their money themselves? The problem is not only that this tends to be an inefficient system, because it is unlikely that the minority of people with wealth have the best ideas on which business ventures are most promising. The main difficulty is that, if the economy is contracting, they too will tend to lose money if they invest it. They would be wiser to store the money in a safe location or, if there is inflation, to buy government bonds or precious metals that tend to give returns on investments that reflect interest rates.

So, capitalist economies are vibrant and generate considerable wealth when there are, on average, favorable returns of investment. Gains in production efficiency, improvements in product quality, creation of new products, and discovery of new markets (which has often involved converting things that are free, such as air, water, and social support, into “value-added” purchased goods and services) have resulted in favorable returns on investment and improved the quality of life for many people.

However, a world with finite resources cannot grow forever. One reason is that limited land, water, energy, and other resources become scarcer over time, and obtaining them costs more time and energy. Second, discovering new, clever innovations becomes increasingly difficult over time as the "low-hanging fruit" of simpler innovations are discovered. Third, the specialization that accompanies increased efficiency also makes systems more vulnerable to disruptions. A good example is the Irish potato famine, in which monoculture left an entire agricultural system vulnerable to a fungus. Protecting vulnerable systems also costs time and energy.

Those who have predicted imminent depletion of nonrenewable resources or the collapse of economies have generally been embarrassingly wrong. I think the reason is not that their concerns about the limits of growth are unfounded. I think they have failed to anticipate the extent of human ingenuity. Fracking, for example, has greatly expanded the amount of retrievable oil, but the amount of oil buried in the earth is declining and the energy cost of retrieving it has been increasing.

Stagnating economies lead to redistribution of wealth toward those who already have wealth, ultimately resulting in widespread impoverishment. Liberal debt cancellation is not a solution. This will increase interest rates, because such policies increase the cost of lending, which increases the amount of growth necessary to avoid greater concentration of wealth. As people become increasingly desperate to pay off debts, there will be stronger incentives to harmfully exploit humans and nonhumans, and there will be eventual economic collapse due to massive amounts of private and public debt.

Is widespread misery inevitable? I don't think so, and I will turn to this next.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D

2. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

All-Creatures.org Newsletter, February 26, 2025

Amazing facts about lobsters and how to advocate for them - Dr. Will Tuttle’s reflection on universal intelligence and the complexity of life - delicious and practical tips to increase your protein intake - addressing speciesism in education with humane animal models - coexisting with bears - the downside of backyard chickens - and more...

All-Creatures.org Newsletter, March 5, 2025

Tips for helping your family make the switch to veganism - Common Raven (Corvus corax) [new painting from Barry Kent MacKay] - special prosecutor appointed to investigate notorious dog breeder - NYC carriage driver faces trial for abuse of horse - Vegan Kennings [new poem from Heidi Stephenson] - Sycamore [new poem from J.H. Dickinson] - how food has been a tool of colonization - veganism as a divine calling - resources for a vegan Lent - and more...

Do you have things that you would like to see included in future newsletters? Then send it to us at maddie@all-creatures.org.

In the Love of the Lord,
Frank L. Hoffman
All-Creatures.org

and

Kindness,
Tams Nicholson
Executive Director
All-Creatures.org

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