What good is money if you can’t spend it? I have had £15 in my pocket for a week and spent nothing. Why? Nowhere open to spend it. A slight exaggeration, of course, but you can understand what I mean. And normal routine expenditure, like petrol, is not needed because the car isn’t going anywhere.
Any lessons? I select two, but there will be more.
First, this demonstrates our dependence on others. I could be the richest man in the world, but if there is no food in the shop, or no one is prepared to sell to me, or I am prevented from buying for some reason, I go hungry. If car production ceases I cannot buy a new car. And so it goes on. Putting it another way, if I were shipwrecked on a desert island with a suitcase full of bank notes and credit cards what could I buy?
We are a community, and if we are lucky enough to have some money in our purse or wallet, we should remember that. Never exploit anyone, for example. There was a super letter in The Sunday Times today:
“It is striking that those we are turning to for lifesaving help are among the worst-paid: nurses, cleaners, delivery drivers, supermarket staff, carers and others. Our pay structures clearly do not recognise the real value of the jobs people do.”
Second, if we cannot spend our money in the shops, or go on holiday, or out for a meal, and assuming we are lucky enough to be receiving our normal income, we should have money to spare. So think about your favourite Charities. They are really worried about their income during this period. Christian Aid, for example, has been forced to cancel their biggest source of income: the house-to-house collection in May. The Church of England, like other churches, is going to lose a lot of money. A letter has just come to all parishes in the Diocese of Chester from George Colville, Diocesan Secretary. It speaks of the predicament for many parish churches. In the modelling for Diocesan finances (which depend mainly on the giving in parish churches) he writes: “It is going to be tough.” To individual churches he says: “If any of you have a ‘rainy day fund’ now is the time to use it...”
Who needs money?