Who Could You Tell What You Earn?

Imagine you are offered the chance to find out exactly how much other people make. You could instantly find out the income level of your neighbors, your coworkers, even your career rivals. How good would it feel to discover you made more than your work nemesis? Would you want to know what others made? It's hard for me to imagine many people being completely immune to this curiosity.

But now suppose I added a catch. Learning everyone else's income will also show them how much you earn. Our question then becomes: Would you want your (and everyone else’s) income revealed?

I imagine a few different scenarios would play out with arguments for both sides.

Some people would absolutely not want this information known. Like those who make a lot of money and feel somewhat guilty about it. Or maybe they don't feel guilty, but they suspect others might view them differently if they knew how many vehicles they have insured. Or people who don't make much money and feel ashamed or defeated about it.

Conversely, some people would eagerly want this information to be known. Like those who make a lot of money and derive their sense of value from it. Or those who don't make much money and feel it's a result of an unfair system that too many people are complacent about.

Yet if all incomes were made publicly available, the biggest revelation might be our attitudes toward money. We would watch the story people tell about their income, which would give us a unique glimpse into the way they think about money itself.

We could also add a part two to the question: Would you want your (and everyone else’s) savings and investment accounts revealed (as well as the debt you owe)? 

I would guess this answer would shock us more than the first. There would likely be many people who live extravagantly and appear to have it all. The family with the boat and other vacation toys who also has a second mortgage to pay for it. We might be surprised by how many people have massive debt to create their lifestyle.

Or what about the people who have saved up extreme amounts in a 401k or investment portfolio? A staggering amount might prompt others to ask why. Are they building massive accounts out of fear, or to give away, or for ego? It's easier not to have to answer for that. That's why we often don't have these conversations.

I grew up not knowing what my parents made and I've transferred that as normative with my own kids. Yet I've discovered something healthy happens for them, and for me, when we bring them into more of the details of our finances than feels normal for me. We've talked with our older kids about both our incomes and our savings. You can have healthy transparency with your kids without burdening them with adult anxiety. Showing them how much a restaurant dinner costs for a family of seven was enlightening, even though it hasn't slowed down how often they ask for it as much as I hoped. When we are open with what we are doing, we can have different conversations.

Managing our money well is difficult. For example, how much money is the right amount to save? The more money you make, the more options you have when deciding on this number. I'm not suggesting there's a problem with saving up money to provide for your family's needs or to cover a medical emergency. While some of my more progressive friends may disagree, I don't inherently see an issue with saving for retirement either. But a subtle shift often happens when growing the accounts becomes the end rather than the means to an end.

One of my favorite theologians, David Bentley Hart, has a profound thought on this, as recently quoted by The Jim Forest Institute for Religion, Peace & Justice.

Christ does not say to have the 'right attitude' toward your possessions; He says do not store them up. The prohibition is absolute. Earthly property is structurally bound to the world of decay, extraction, and systemic injustice. To attempt to secure one's life through accumulation is a fundamental rejection of the Kingdom.

Hart is referring to a difficult teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. I'm not sure I could practice it as robustly as he frames it. Yet we must do something with Jesus' teaching on excessive saving. 

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. (Matthew 6:19-21)

If Hart's quote puts you in defensive mode, consider that he's addressing the attempt to secure our life through accumulating more. A big retirement or investment account tends to do just that. Especially when no end goal is in sight beyond accumulating more and more and more. Most of us can see how easily our heart is swayed by where we put our treasure.

Similarly, 1 Timothy 6 offers another example along the same lines.

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Unfortunately, people who follow Jesus aren't inherently good at treasuring more than earthly things. Neither are our churches. A recent investigation into the finances of a church named Eleven22 revealed what the mainstream church industry in the U.S. can be like. A fantastic 46-minute video, The Business of Eleven22, shows how this gets weird. 

One of the most shocking parts of the documentary (and there are many) is how it exposes the church's unwillingness to talk about how it spends its money. This is ironic because the video shows how often the church talks about money's importance. In our culture, this silence is a feature, not a bug.

 In America, churches receive something no other major institution receives: enormous privacy, and sadly, through precedent. Today, that often means donors cannot see executive and staff compensation, housing allowances, governance information, complete financial statements, and if you ask questions, you may be called Jezebel, Judas, or an accuser of the brethren. (Nathan Apffel, beginning at 39:36)

Earthly property is bound to this world and pulls us down with it. The more we avoid talking about how we use it, the more likely we are to be pulled down by it. These days I'm realizing the need to challenge our capitalist desires that we've come to see as normative. Our hearts are far too susceptible to the same treasure as everyone else. Our society tells us that healthy, successful things must keep growing and accumulating more. But as Christians, we should actively work to keep this in check.

A good first step might be a willingness to talk more about what we're doing with money. 

Here's my challenge to you: who could you talk with about your finances in a way that feels a little scary? Maybe it's your kids, a close friend, another couple, or a family member.

Let's return to the earlier question about how much to save. What if the answer was found in inviting other people's voices into the conversation? Specifically, what if you asked someone who makes less than you?

Would your money management hold up to public scrutiny?

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash