Dental Care This Part II Should Include Term Paper

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Dental Care

This part II should include Exegesis about the Economic Justice.

The world is wrestling today -- as it always was, but perhaps it is more noticeable today -- between extremes of progress and stultification, between extremes of poverty and wealth, and between extremes of greed and lassitude. People, on the one hand, are grasping for more, and then you have, on the other hand, people who have the wealth of half the world and keep in their small nook. It is not only countries that are suffering but individuals, too. And the Church, committed to spreading the Word of God and, consequently, committed to world progress, resolves, as is mentioned in the Vatican Pastoral Constitution, to intervene:

In the economic and social realms, too, the dignity and complete vocation of the human person and the welfare of society as a whole are to be respected and promoted. For man are the source, the center, and the purpose of all economic and social life. (Chap. 3; 63).

The Church, throughout the ages, has set down certain guidelines to try to reduce the gap between wretchedness and extravagance and to try to nurture and relieve the load of the suffering individual on both a micro and macro scales. The Vatican resolved to augment these steps with others in accordance with contemporary circumstances. They came up with four resolutions:

1. Technical progress and innovation should be pursued but the ends should be, nor for material acquisition, but for the growth and development of humanity -- seeing its needs in a positive way and towards fulfillment of a God-filled world. Economy should be pursued in accordance with the guidelines of God (Section 1; 64).

2. All nations and groups should have a share in determining economic development and the progress of their country; it should not be left under the direction of a few individuals or mighty corporations or governments (Section 1; 65).

3. The skills of all classes of people should be used in augmenting the county's economic situation. Immigrants and their families should be treated kindly, and workers, as a whole, should be dignified not as tools of production but as people in their own right. (Section 1; 66).

4. Society should help all individuals find work and remuneration should be in accord with helping man achieve his labor and live his life. Workers should be compensated with above-menial wages so that they can also devote time to enjoying their family and to resting. (Section 2; 67).

5. Workers can form unions. All should be regulated in a peaceful way. Affairs of operation and administration should be worked out between employer and employee (Section 2; 68).

6. Man should see himself as part of a wider world. All that he earns, also belongs to, and should, benefit others. His actions have repercussions. His work should benefit the world as a whole. In his work, therefore, she should take heed of the results of his actions on others. Family and social services should be promoted and his Investments should be dedicated towards progressive purposes. (Section 2; 68)

7. Goods can be deprivatized only within the proper authority and with adequate compensation. (Section 2; 69). (Pastoral constitution on the church in the modern world" Gaudium Et Spes and teaching from USCCB ( U.S. conference of catholic bishops)

Chrisitant who follow these precepts, assures the Vatican, are constructing a truer more harmonious world that is in sync with God's regulations.

The Bible was always concerned with economics seeing economies as its rite of progress. Philosophers such as Charles Beard and William Appleman stated that history could be understood through economics. Actually, economics is also a hermeneutics that can be used in Biblical interpretation.

Right off from the very start, the Garden of Eden was a milieu that worked on the principles of economics. The citizens were supposed to till the garden; in return, they would benefit. The manna in the desert was the first glimmerings of socialism; all received an equal 'slice'. The manna, too, came with lessons against hoarding. The Jubilee laws, with land reverting in the 5 oth year to the original owner, was a strategy that prevented the few accumulating great mass of possession and power; it also kept the poor from being exploited. There were countless laws like this, including the regulation of paying wages on time and returning the poor man his garb that was his loan at night.

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So many individuals equate capitalism with greed and, thenceforth, to evil. The popular saying goes that "money is the root of all evil," but actually the Bible never exhorts us to detest money. It tells us in Genesis that we will have to work for our living; it portrays the fathers of the Hebrews -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -as wealthy men and none the worse off for their wealth. King Solomon, wisest of all, was stupendously wealthy too. And Koheleth had this to say. If you have 'riches and wealth and… power to eat thereof" it is in your role to "take [your] portion" and to "rejoice in your labor." In other words: eat, drink, and be merry.

On the other hand, manifestation of the corruptive power of wealth can be seen from the story of Naboth and the vineyard. This is pure Marxist exploitation: the poor and vulnerable was exploited by the powerful. The end of the Biblical story, however, is that both the king and his wife suffered for their misdeed. Money when misused becomes addiction and destroys.

Jesus said as much: "No one can serve two masters….you cannot serve God and wealth."

The two -- money and God - have to be conjoined for progress.

Many times, money, or pursuit of money is equated with greed and some, such as Gekko have seen greed as a good thing:

In the famous speech of Gordon Gekko at the Teldar Paper stockholders' meeting, Gekko concludes with the following words:

The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms-greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, greed has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A. (Memorable quotes for Wall Street (1987) )

Gekko equivocates 'competition' with 'greed' and therefore, sees greed as a positive quality that is harbinger and impetus of progress.

The point is that, according to the Bible, Gekko is both right and wrong. The Bible sees money -- or possessions - as a needed and marvelous thing. As long as it is used for progress. As long as it does not dominate. And as long as the work that man is involved in is righteous.

There are people such as Bill Gates who have used money as progress. Right now, Bill Gates is using this very stimulus in designing a better toilet. Enormous amounts of disease and filth has been caused in third-world countries by lack of suitable flushing systems and discharge of sewage. And so the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation are using million dollar cash incentives to stimulate engineers to invent a more modernized toilet. Greed for the money is driving individuals to compete with one another in producing that prize-winning invention.

Bill Gates is practicing charity. The Bible advocates charity.

On the other hand, it also urges justice which includes proscription against taking bribes:

The Enron scandal was a pure violation of Biblical precepts of integrity and business ethics. Progress is synonymous to increasing happiness in the world. Money, when used for good, brings happiness. We are supposed to care for the world; to look after it and till it (Genesis, 1). Money can achieve that.

Concepts such as 'competition', 'capitalism', 'money' or 'corporation' are loaded terms since they have caused much suffering in the world. The suffering is, most times, reducible to greed. These terms and 'greed' itself can, however, be viewed in an alternate way by eliminating their connotations and seeing them in their pure essence. 'Competition' can drive motivation to make the best toilet in order to improve life and health in the developing world as well as impede Wal-Mart from monopolizing businesses. Money makes the world go round and is the root of much good as well as much evil. 'Greed' can make victims lose their pensions as well as produce a better toilet seat.

Ultimately, the term 'greed' is often confused with the terms 'competition', or 'capitalism'. We have had progressive greed - which was the kind that Gekko was referring to -- as well as destructive greed that was characterized by the Enron scandal. The first should be encouraged and is Biblical in kind; the second.....

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