Take less from the poor

“The urgent challenge facing the world is not to give more to the poor, but to take less from the poor; the rich have to get off the backs of the poor and get out of their way so that they can look after themselves…Poverty will never be eliminated unless we eliminate injustice…Poverty is not the problem: injustice is the problem. We need to make a fundamental shift, a paradigm shift, a shift from ownership to relationship…Nature is a gift to nourish all living beings. Ownership imprisons us in materialism. Relationship leads us to spiritual freedom as well as to freedom from hunger…There is abundance in nature. One apple seed produces hundreds of apples, year after year, for many years. If millions of species can satisfy their hunger and thirst without money, why can’t humans do the same?”

Aren’t you ashamed that you try to get as much money as possible?

“I shall never stop practicing philosophy and exhorting you and elucidating the truth for everyone that I meet. I shall go on saying…Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor and give no attention to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?...I shall do this to everyone I meet, young or old, foreigner or fellow citizen, but especially to you, my fellow citizens.”

Reduce the time, energy and money you spend getting and using things

Avoid the temptation to make as much money as possible. Establish a maximum level of income. Spend more than half of your time for good, not making money. Resist commercialism.

Destroy the myth that wealth and comfort are most important

"The most urgent task is to destroy the myth that accumulation of wealth and the achievement of comfort are the chief vocations of man. How can adjustment to society be an inspiration to our youth if that society persists in squandering the material resources of the world on luxuries in a world where more than a billion people go to bed hungry every night? How can we speak of reverence for man and of the belief that all men are created equal without repenting the way we promote the vulgarization of existence."

"The mortal danger faced by all of us is to succumb to the common virus of commercialism—the temptation to make a lot of money.....May I suggest a therapy for the virus of commercialism: a personal decision to establish a maximum level of income." Abraham Heschel, Insecurity, 34.

Do not acquire gains unjustly

"Ah, you who have acquired gains 
To the detriment of your own house, 
Who have destroyed many peoples 
In order to set your nest on high 
To escape disaster! 
You have plotted shame for your own house, 
And guilt for yourself; 
For a stone shall cry out from the wall, 
And a rafter shall answer it from the woodwork. 
Ah, you who have built a town with crime, 
And established a city with infamy...."