The Uber-Rich Make Me Uber-Sick

“The man who surrounds himself with opulent wealth often finds that his gold bars are merely gilded cages that trap his spirit in endless craving.” - Denis Diderot

A Swiss family firm called Brünig Mega Safe started blasting into an alpine mountainside earlier this year. For what purpose, you ask? To build about 20 private vaults more than 330 feet below ground, where the ultra-wealthy can stash gold, art, classic cars, and wine. According to Chairman Thomas Gasser, the vaults are scheduled to open sometime next year, and each cavern is available on a 99-year lease starting at 1 million Swiss francs (the equivalent of about $1.23 million). Buyers even get a parcel number in the land register so they can mortgage it if they want.

Gasser says security will rival that of the Swiss National Bank, and the plans and exact location are so secret that he would not even show reporters where the entrance will be. Supposedly, drivers will be required to stop at a checkpoint and leave their vehicles.

Residents in nearby Lungern are split in their opinions about the project, with one grumbling that the village is building something for people who already have enough money, and others joking that Ferraris will soon be racing on its alpine roads.

Meanwhile, 9 million people (25,000 per day) starve to death every year, including 3 million children under the age of 5. Let that sink in for a minute or two… maybe 330 feet deep into your heart.

There is nothing wrong with being rich, but this kind of self-absorbed opulence without a social conscience makes my stomach sick and my blood boil.

“Then He told them a parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man produced an abundance. So he thought to himself, “What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods. Then I will say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’ This is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21 (BSB)

"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark 8:36-37 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President