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| Monday, November 14, 2005 |
| It's true: Churchgoers are wealthier - or so says this article |
The Christian Science Monitor is running this article It's true: Churchgoers are wealthier in today's edition.
Jonathan Gruber an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has published a paper which explores how attending religious service impacts your financial well-being.
Now an economist has found a statistical correlation between attending church (or a temple or mosque) and a "better economic outcome."
After reading the article I could see that it made sense. Folks who are regular church goers become part of a community. When looking for work or leads you have an extra network to tap that a non-church goer does not have. The other major benefit appears to be the extra support a church group gives you when hit by a "wealth shock" such as an illness, job loss, or economic disaster.
It does seem weird to think of money and religion this way, but all and all an interesting article. |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 3:00 PM *
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| 5 Comments: |
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I'd go out on a limb that organized religion has always been a construct to make a profitable community out of spirituality.
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I always like to throw out the first things we learn in statistics classes... "correlation does not imply causation" and "there may be another independent variable at play."
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Very interesting! I don't give a lot of weight to the idea that wealth is tied to social connections made in church. I think that the type of people who attend church regularly are probably the same type of people who have developed consistent, positive habits and routines in other parts of their lives, including their finances. They are probably, on average, more conservative than the population at large...which may also bleed over into being conservative with their money (saving vs. spending).
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There have also been studies that connect religion to overall well-being.
This leads to reduced medical costs, as well as less money spent on sinful behavior, like drinking, smoking, overeating etc. Plus if your healthy you are better able to earn money.
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Count me in as skeptical about causation here.
I think the opposite reality is probably more truthful (and less newsworthy): stable families with good earning and savings habits tend to go to church/temple.
Why?
Because their neighbors do, because they were raised to do so, because they're not working on the weekend, etc.
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I'd go out on a limb that organized religion has always been a construct to make a profitable community out of spirituality.