Bulls, Bears and Golden Calves: A Thorough Overview With a Christian Perspective of Economic and Ethical Analysis

John E. Stapleford’s book called Bulls, Bears, and Golden Calves is a great insight into the Christian views of economics of today’s world and the way we view it. There are a number of points that Stapleford talks about in this book from biblical times to Christopher Columbus’ times. This book narrates just how Christians should behave and view the problems of the past and the problems of today. Overall, I feel the book is very in-depth and concise on the way some issues should be observed. Stapleford does a great job including references and bible verses to support his positions.

Agriculture was a pivotal part in the development of human culture, society, and large-scale civilizations. In modern times, agriculture has become dominated by giant corporations that have pioneered the vision of maximizing the profit to be gained from providing the most basic of necessities to society. Profit maximization has been made possible through innovations like intensive animal farming, and single crop specialization. The increase in profit is not without a cost. Application of industrialized agriculture has been done without moral consideration for both the farmers producing the food, and the consumers buying it. This paper seeks to prove that industrialized agriculture can be considered morally wrong because it treats farmers as mere means to maximizing corporate profit, and eliminates the virtues that come from traditional farming culture.

Long working hours have both disadvantage and advantages (Kuriger, 2004). The advantage being the extra working hours can be used to create employment. However, if this is not the case and the same workers are overworked then it becomes a drawback to both the workers and the organization. Employees will want to work the extra hours so as to earn more pay and some it is due to job insecurity. Some organizations will not pay the extra hours arguing that its part of the job description, but this poses a threat to the employee’s health and safety. This is brought about by exhaustion hence reduced concentration at work. The work performance will reduce and the organization will stand to lose. To deal with this, the company may decide to create a policy where overtime working is voluntary depending on the individual capacity of the employees. The company might also decide to employ more workers, and then divide them in such a way that some are assigned those shifts that would have otherwise been overtime (Poole, 2000).

As long as the human race has been on this Earth there have always been those who are above the rest with their wealth and prosperity and those who are poor and could use a hand. With this rises the dilemma of whether it is a moral obligation for those who are wealthy to lend a helping hand to the hungry people that are less fortunate than them. That brings the question of what would this moral obligation be; would it be something that we perceive as being the correct thing to do or an actual obligation that is required of us. The two men whose articles I will be discussing today have differing views when it comes to this subject. On one hand we have Garrett Hardin who believes that aiding the poor is the wrong course of action. We then have Peter Singer who believes that is should be an obligation for all of us to help those in need. While Garrett Hardin makes a strong argument as to why we should not provide aid to the poor it is Peter Singer’s argument that gives a more compelling reason as to why it is right for us to aid those in need.

Worshippers of the faith were now more inclined to save and invest wisely in all their economic endeavors. Because of the practicality implemented in their faith, the Protestants became committed to practicing smarter tactics to obtain a place in Heaven. The role that these ideas played in the formation of their economic success, was integral to not only their success, but the rise of capitalism in the United States. The ideas that were derived from this faith soon became the spirit of capitalism. This spirit was easily applicable to capitalism, and the practices and methods the Protestants developed soon became more commonplace within collective society. The ascetic practices that were being implemented in the United States were now integral to credit and value, which is a core belief of Protestantism. However, despite the success that the United States now possessed due to the rise of capitalism in their society, they reached a level of idleness in their spirit. By complying to economic modesty, the average American worker was now trapped in an “iron cage”. This “iron cage” refers to the over rationalization of the United States with their money. By becoming conscious of their actions and aware of the result that followed, the workers’ spirit died a little. The calling soon enough became an illusion that existed long ago in a different society, but is now

Economic conditions have serious implication on how one administer one’s life as Christians. Capitalism is the system that governs America, which comprise of four main concepts system namely the right of ownership of private property, a free enterprise which is the freedom to pursue one’s own interest, competition in the production and distribution of goods and service and a government modifies capitalism by imposing regulation and direction to industries.

Jesus calls all of his followers to live a life of poverty. Today, our culture places value on material objects, and it is difficult to live in poverty. It is not simple to balance poverty with materialism and one’s relationship with God. While the level of wealth one enjoys is not indicative of one’s relationship with God, it can indicate how much trust that person has for God. Anyone can follow Jesus’ call to poverty, and it encourages His followers to focus on God.

Stress can be further examined by exploring the demand-control model and effort-reward model of workforce stress. The demand-control model analyzes the relationship between an individual’s workplace demands faced and control one has over meeting these demands. If the workforce demands are high, but control over meeting these demands is low, job strain is at its highest (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2011). An example of this would be how a Best Buy associate is required to ask every customer if they would like to purchase an extended warranty regardless of whether he or she thinks a customer needs it or can afford it. The optimal result of a demand-control model

With most Christians living in countries which embrace capitalism with dynamism, it has led to the Christian faithful facing the challenge of embracing materialism in order to survive.

Four-day workweek, like the name suggests, calls for replacing the five eight-hour days with four ten-hour days without changes in hourly earnings or weekly earnings. Therefore, the same number of hours of work and leisure are provided at the same earnings. The concept of a compressed workweek is not new, even if it is not the norm for most jobs. Proposals to reduce weekly hours of work, a major concern of American labor in the early years of century, are again a serious concern to many people. The 2008 National Study of Employers, released by the Families and Work Institute, found that 38 percent of US firms allow a compressed workweek for some employees. Eight percent permit it for all or most employees (Gardner). When a growing number of employers are considering converting to a compressed four-day workweek, it is important to understand positives and negatives of the new work schedule, to analyze a specific example of company that have failed in converting to the new policy, and to understand additional factors to consider before the implementation of the new policy.

George valued work-life balance greatly, however at ABC Consulting, he started overworking in order to compensate for his lack helpfulness in meetings. Work overload and low task control were the main causes of George’s stress. He worked more hours at the office and more intensely, increasing his work-life imbalance. After Janet’s review of his report, George felt stressed from the lack of control he had over his task

Working is an integral part of modern life; most people spend forty or more hours every week at their jobs. However, as the pace of life accelerates and competition for employment rises, the pressure to work harder and longer has resulted in a dangerous culture of over-working. In “The Company Man,” Ellen Goodman writes about Phil, a workaholic who has recently passed away, and his unhealthy dedication to his job that eventually resulted in his tragic death. Using repetition, irony, and anecdotes, Goodman effectively conveys her pitying attitude toward Phil.

The term “workaholism” holds no universal definition. On one hand, it is considered similar to addiction to chemical substances, and on the other it is a behavioral issue that has to potential to obstruct basic life functions like sleep, nourishment, and maintenance of personal relationships. Workaholism is also not always viewed as the amount of time that one spends working, but rather the amount of time that one spends thinking about work or work-related tasks. Some feel guilt during leisure time if they are not completing a task, and others bring their work with them on vacation. Workaholism is an increasing problem that is not being fully addressed because it is viewed as “productive," however the more time one spends working, the less productive they become, and the more likely they are to have a work related accident. Overworking can have a negative impact on an individual’s physical and psychological health, which can further affect their lives inimicably by increasing the risk of feeling loneliness due to unhealthy/unstable personal relationships, and decreasing work productivity due to fatigue and depression. Overworking can also cause a series of medical conditions, including the deterioration of cardiovascular health, high blood pressure, increased risk of stroke, and musculoskeletal disorders. Additionally, the impulse to be working at all times can be understood through a series of personality traits including perfectionism, low self-esteem, and the need

Some case studies have also indicated evidence that companies have difficulties in handling the work and emotional situation of the individual and multirole assignments that may lead to exhaustion of younger employees that are unable to achieve an appropriate work-life balance or to manage the damaging consequences of role overload and role conflict. Furthermore, from an organizational and managerial perspective, not looking at such issues may damage efforts to

People now are getting used to excessive work hours as the globalization accelerates. In order to survive, a large number of enterprises urge their staff to finish more work with higher quality or they are in danger of getting fired. Therefore, it is not so surprising when we get the fact that people work more hours nowadays. Workaholism, which is used by scholars, to describe the phenomenon, brings about a huge revolution in the way people work. The change of work pattern leads to personal problems. There were quite a few divorces caused by the complaints made by one partner on the other partner’s too heavy work load and pressure. There also are workaholic fathers who have never seen his baby awake because of the busy work. Even some