How Protestant Christianity Made Us Rich.

[@sam_so-so]

This is a mighty bizarre take given that Martin Luther, in the 1520s, had a disdain for the lust for profits and usury. In multiple sermons on usury and commerce he stated, "Daily the poor are defrauded. New burdens and high prices are imposed. Everyone misuses the market in his own willful, conceited, arrogant way, as if it were his right and privilege to sell his goods as dearly as he pleases without a word of criticism.” And again, "After the devil there is no greater human enemy on earth than a miser and usurer, for he desires to be above everyone." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the centuries later concept of the "protestant work ethic", a polite turn of phrase used to obscure exploration masked as hard work.

[@mickomagallanes1185]

This is a misrepresentation of Christianity. In no way does the Protestants or the Puritans have believed that they can be saved by doing good works. That is even one of the reason why the Reformation started. The Puritans encouraged working hard because that's what the Bible says, to work for the Lord (Col 3:23-24). And by serving the Lord with our endeavors, Christ is glorified. Christians do it because they are already saved by the grace of God, but never to get saved by doing those works.

[@edutuario]

As a side note, who is us? 1% take 2/3 of all existent wealth as we speak (2023). Coming back to point. This video & Weber ignore a lot of the protestant revolts that happened in Germany, like those of the peasant's wars that had clearly anti-capitalist goals. I think Weber is more focused on calvinism than protestantism in general, so he might be free of blame. If we look at the peasants demands to the Swabian league, there are at least 2 articles that are against accumulation of wealth and private property : 5. The nobles have taken sole possession of the forest. When the poor man needs something, he must buy it for twice its price. Consequently, all the forests that were not bought (meaning former community forests, which many rulers had simply appropriated) shall be returned to the village so that anybody can satisfy his needs therefrom for timber and firewood. 10. Many [nobles] have appropriated meadows and fields belonging to the towns (commons, which were at the disposal of all townspeople). We want them returned to all of us in common. These revolts were completely linked to the protestant reforms but were completely opposed to capitalist values, the revolts are included in both Marx and Engels analysis

[@BulgarianIrredentist]

Everyone in Bulgaria should watch this video. They would learn a lot!

[@allthingshumanities5328]

Is this because capitalism was not embraced in Bulgaria?

[@StoicHistorian]

Great video, learned a lot

[@allthingshumanities5328]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@williamrassios9050]

Interesting video!

[@wynea7911]

Very succinct explanation. Thanks

[@tristants9209]

Calvin not Luther...

[@scarfmaker560]

This idea of the "protestant work ethic", as presented uncritically here and in Weber's original work, can be considered at least not true for a few reasons. First of all, it assigns the emergence of Capitalism not to a bunch of overlapping, complicated societal factors (the industrial revolution, the emergence of ideas like banking, stocks, etc.) that just happened to coalesce in Western and Northern Europe, but instead to a general vibe of how people act (i.e. Protestants just work harder I guess). The modern idea of a bank as we know it emerged in Northern Italy, decades before Martin Luther was even born. Second, it doesn't explain how other places could have adopted industrialism or contributed to industrialism that were not protestant (other European but non-protestant countries were also able to industrialize or contribute to Industrialization or Capitalism, much later but still). Think again of Italy, or Japan, more recently China, or even Russians after the Communists took over, or even of the many non-protestant immigrants that fed the economic machine of the United States). Third, one should keep in mind that many protestants even during the emergence of Capitalism were critical of wealth accumulation (Dutch Calvinists especially). Fourth, one should keep in mind that this idea can quite naturally be used to exclude others or as a value judgement for others. Crediting Capitalism and hard work to a "Protestant work ethic" presupposes that other groups like Jewish people or non-Protestant Christian groups do not value hard work or could not engage in capitalism successfully, which historically is completely untrue. One should tread with caution here.

[@clay119]

Stop smoking copium kid

[@brianbellic2714]

All lives matter, except for socialist like you 👍🏻