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The ripple effects that threaten to swamp us

Commentary on the economic situation by the Rev John Matthews, minister of Ruchhill Parish Church and a former European executive for General Electric.

Poverty has become an industry, giving the middle classes a plentiful supply of jobs and lifelong careers in welfare and other services. This, too, will change as private and public funding become tighter. If the churches, wider faith groups and voluntary sector were to stop work today, one-third of all social services would cease and urban and rural communities would be immeasurably impoverished - though this is seldom fully recognised. Will funding increase in the voluntary sector as it has in the banking sector?

If the voluntary sector becomes the poor relation in the coming economic recession, then it will be the vulnerable children and families who will suffer, the black economy will grow, drug and alcohol abuse will increase - all to the detriment of our civil society. Scotland's potential to change is, and it always has been, in its people; how they think, work and behave towards one another. Every so often in the history of communities and nations, something takes place of such magnitude as to bring about a sea-change in the cultural life of the people. Is the present credit crash such an event? Can we turn it to our good? Will the release of these huge negative, financial and economic forces as they impact Scotland bring about an equal and opposite release of the spiritual, intellectual and moral potential that once made us a leader among nations?

Full story at The Herald.