THE Kirk has issued a damning report on the "greed and inequality" of the bonus culture and tax avoidance, urging members to back anti-poverty measures such as increasing the minimum wage.
A Kirk commission headed by the former head of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, Professor Charles Munn, backs four key priorities – reducing inequality, ending poverty, ensuring sustainability and promoting mutualism.
But it is the report's views on the causes of the economic crisis, with its emphasis on tax evasion and business ethics, which is politically charged.
The report on the Special Commission on the Purposes of Economic Activity states: "We urge the Church to change, in the light of the clear teaching of Scripture, our own priorities in preaching, teaching and action with respect to money, greed and inequalities, as a Gospel witness and to encourage such change among all the people of Scotland.
"We call on the Westminster and Holyrood governments to pursue policies which reduce injurious levels of personal debt, and to introduce a legally binding maximum interest rate of 40% APR for all kinds of consumer credit.
"We call on the UK and Scottish governments to promote financial education in schools and colleges as a priority, and would encourage the promotion and expansion of the Credit Union movement."
The report also backs the living wage and measures to use procurement policies to spread it. It states: "We affirm support for the minimum wage, and encourage its being raised towards the level of the living wage; we urge that payment of the living wage be made a criterion in awarding goods and services contracts over the value of £100,000 in any year.
"We urge the UK Government to end the UK's support for tax havens, to support greater international tax transparency, and to prioritise the development and implementation of a code of conduct on business taxation which defines the practices and behaviours firms will and will not undertake."
The report also encourages business to recognise the "corrosive effects on business ethics of the current unhealthy dependence on the bonus culture", and urges a return to "more traditional forms of remuneration" .
The report also backs the growing of the "mutual" and co-operative sectors of the Scottish economy towards 10% of the total, the promotion of business models that emphasise positive social impacts, and calls on the Scottish and UK Governments to introduce "immediate fiscal incentives to promote these."
In one of the most damning passages, the report speaks of the way the "unconstrained market can get things wrong, leaving market outcomes that are unjust and unpredictable". It speaks of "a moral dimension to markets as well as an economic one and Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' needs some legal and regulatory parameters within which it can work".
The report insists that "ultimately, markets must reflect the values of society." It adds that while bankers have borne much of the blame, "many of us in the developed world have played a part in the crisis either by our sins of commission or omission."
It adds: "The choices we make about how to live differently and use the resources at our disposal wisely are not choices enforced by the market economy but demonstrate the priorities, values and principles of the kind of society we have become."
Dave Thompson, SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, welcomed the report. He said: "Paying a living wage and tackling poverty through fair pay is a subject very close to my heart as its implementation would have a hugely beneficial impact on families across the country."
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