| | I prefer to interpret Scrooge as a Non-conformist, an old Presbyterian or Congregationalist, for whom Christmas was a pagan holiday. They did not celebrate it. That would also tie in with the Protestant Ethic of work. Max Weber explained it well. For Catholics, the monastery and convent took people out of the world. Living in the world, the righteous Protestant was an example to others: hard work, industry, thrift, all the virtues of the cloistered community were in and of the present here and now. The problem then became what to do with the inevitable wealth. Obviously, it must be invested well, where it will do the most good. While charity is a virtue, allowing the poor to squander good wealth on immediate vices does no one any service.
Max Weber quotes at length (in entirety, I believe) from Benjamin Franklin's The Way to Wealth. Typically, I link to that essay here at Swarthmore. However, I have been using a different search engine lately, Exalead. It is recommended by the library at Berkeley as an alternative to Google. Via Exalead/search, I found this set of readings on Wealth, including an essay by P. T. Barnum. In a term paper on the Objectivist Ethics applied to business, I called such literature the "pillow books of economics." We don't learn how to make money in economics classes, sort of like sex education in Christian schools.
And speaking of sex, did you know that Ann Coulter posed for Playboy? I never thought much of her so-called ideas, but I have a new appreciation of her.
(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 12/25, 4:28am)
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