The way we think and talk about the accumulation of wealth as a virtue has its roots in The Protestant Work Ethic and has everything to do with the way we view billionaires and the stock market

The Protestant Work Ethic is a worldview that frames wealth (ie worldy success) as an indicator of God’s favor and the lack of wealth as a sign of God’s judgment (like a sin)

Most people are familiar with the quote attributed to Ben Franklin - “Time is Money”

We still feel the destruction this false equivalence ravages today (but that’s for another thread)...

Reading Franklin’s whole quote sheds light on why The Protestant Work Ethic impacts how we think about wealth...

Remember, that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or rather...

... thrown away, five shillings besides. [...] Remember, that money is the prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is six, turned again is seven and threepence, and so on, till it becomes a hundred...

..pounds. The more there is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding-sow, destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced...

Franklin’s saying that when you don’t exchange time for money, you aren’t just losing out on the money you could’ve (and should’ve) made, but also ALL the money your money would’ve made too

You may be asking, “so, what’s wrong with that? He’s right.”

The thing is, it’s subtle.

Franklin’s statement isn’t just a philosophy of greed... he’s making a MORAL ARGUMENT- making money through work and investment is “Good” and not building wealth is “Bad”...

This ideology, the cult of The Protestant Work Ethic, is underlying everything being discussed right now with the stock market but for the most part is invisible

And because the stock market, and our economy in general, is guided by the invisible ideology of The Protestant Work Ethic, it’s dangerous, because having unspoken moral judgements about wealth of the lack of wealth has HUGE ramifications.

As the events of this week unfold and everyone talks about what’s happening, look for the hidden tendrils of The Protestant Work Ethic and its MORAL judgements

And check out “The Protestant Work Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism” to dig deeper...