Daily Prayer Won't Cure Our Economic Ills (But Voting Might)

The chart above is from the Pew Research Center. It shows the percentage of the population in each country that says they pray every day. Note that the most developed countries, with the exception of the United States, all have very low percentages of daily prayer. Why is the U.S. different?

Pew attributes it to two possible causes -- 1) the lack of government interference in religion where religions enthusiastically compete for new members, and 2) the inequality of our economic system.

All of the other developed countries had a much fairer economic system. Even the poor share in those nation's economic success. That's not true in the United States. The U.S. doesn't just have a vast gap in wealth and income between the rich and poor, it has a vast gap between the rich and everyone else (including the working and middle classes).

Note that all the countries where there are high percentages of daily prayer are countries with a high inequality in their economic systems.

We have this vast inequality because the Republicans have been laying down the economic rules since about 1980, and their belief is in "trickle-down" economics -- the idea that if we just give more to the rich, they will happily share it with everyone else. This policy has been an utter failure (since money in a capitalism doesn't trickle down, but flows upward). They don't care. Their real constituency is the rich, not working and middle class Americans.

It's sad and wrong when the government refuses to institute a fair economic system -- forcing people to pray to some god to get some relief.

It doesn't have to be that way. We had a much fairer system before 1980, and we could have it again. But it won't happen until the Republicans are voted out of power. Praying won't fix our economic ills, but voting might do that.