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| International-UN-NGOs |
| Religion and Economic Development |
| 2008-04-01 |
| An article by Rachel M. McCleary, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, published in Policy Review magazine .... Now [after a discussion of how four economic-development factors -- education, value of time, life expectancy and urbanization -- are affected by a country's religion] letÂ’s look at how religion influences the four primary indicators of economic development. Education. Religious beliefs .... motivate people to work hard and cultivate virtuous behavior. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #7 Or, as my Dad used to say when applying English to the cue ball, Not, too little, not too much, but juuuuust right. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-04-01 14:53 |
| #6 *sigh* Religious attendance versus economic production follows the classic Laffer curve: very low and very high attendance would mostly lead to low economic production, while peak economic production probably lies at some moderate level of attendance. Given the record of the Torah in being uncannily right on a whole raft of things, I would hazard a guess that one rest day out of seven is close to the attendance/production "laffer" peak, with a confidence factor of 80% There are several philosophical problems with this study: the marxian assumption of man as being a solely economic animal is heavily leaned upon: "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." I am sure the reliance on polls and other people's studies and opinions is a serious drawback. There are other implicit assumptions about God and religion that, differing from reality, will give "undesirable results" to some people. I won't comment other than to say that God isn't responsible for correcting incorrect assumptions that people hold that reasonably interpreted evidence should cause them to otherwise abandon. |
| Posted by: ptah 2008-04-01 14:06 |
| #5 interesting comments, so I think it is great that they opened the discussion, however I still think the premise of the study is flawed. They do not make the case that increased time spent practicing religion reduces productivity. It would be the same as saying that increased activity in charity work shows decreased productivity in a society. Many who have ample money particpate in volunteer positions. They don't need to go to work so if they didn't volunteer in feeding the homeless, they might be sitting by the pool. It's just a bogus argument to imply that those participating in any volunteer activity would other wise be working in a paying job. Additionally, work done by churches and volunteer activities DOES contribute to society by raising up the downtrodden through feeding the hungry and helping to house the homeless or to take care of the drug addicted. Those who spend time studying scripture might otherwise be at the library reading any other subject of interest. They just don't make the case. |
| Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967 2008-04-01 13:40 |
| #4 the Hoover Inst is a right leaning org; the JFK school a moderate lefty org amazingly, she doesn't bother to expound on the problem of 'no interest' in Islam. Any serious analysis should have looked long and hard at this... in fact many serious studies do look at this (much of Pakistan's problems are the result of a turn toward Islamic socialism under Benezir's father and one especially awful part of this marriage of two awful ideologies was restrictions on interest) |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-04-01 10:33 |
| #3 "Religions who are embedded in failed or successful states act differently". But somletimes these religions are a primary factor for the region being a failed state in the first place. I don't think it is a mere hazrd that there is no developed Muslim or animist country, that all the developed ones are either Christian, Jewish or from Confucianist/Buddhist Asia (except for Japan the later emerged recently). Also for centuries Protestant regions were more developed than Catholic regions. But in Germany we have the Souabia/Bavaria anomaly these are the two richest regions in Germany and they happen to be Catholic. I think however that the explanation is religio/political: while Protestant values are better tuned to economic progress than Catholic ones the later provide a better resistance against the different variants of socialism (Suaboia and Bavaria re the two most right wing Lander in Germany) while in Protestant regions, the school system is hard at work molding kids minds with socialist/graen and similar ideologies harmful to economic development and "purifying" them of the qualities, energy and taste for becoming successful entrepreneurs. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-04-01 06:23 |
| #2 See also RENSE.com > US IMPERIALISM IS THE COMMUNIST LEGACY; + GLOBALRESEARCH.CA > NEW WORLD ORDER - A PLANNED ECONOMY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-04-01 00:39 |
| #1 there are so many obvious problems with this study that it could only have come from an Ivy League School. For example, people who are less productive at work have more time to participate in religious activities. Yet here they are implying that participation is what causes the decrease in productivity without any real explanation of how they came to that conclusion. Additionally, people who are drug addicted or otherwise down on their luck are often encouraged to participate in church programs - which allows them to become more productive than they would have been otherwies. Yet it is just as likely that they were included in "people who spend more time in church activities and thus less productive". I think what is happening is that many people are looking around and seeing that those who belong to Christian or Jewish faiths experience many positive benefits and the Harvard crowd couldn't bear to admit what they found. |
| Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967 2008-04-01 00:32 |