St James' words are particularly fitting for our modern world after the so-called economic tsunami. The billions of dollars that banks claim to have "lost" must have ended up in someone's pocket or in a bank account in some tax haven. Most of those billions came from cheating and deceiving ordinary people in ways St James could never have imagined.

St James also accuses the rich for condemning the innocent and killing them. He may have had something particular in mind. Perhaps, however, he is simply speaking in general terms of the widespread suffering caused by economic inequality and its consequent proliferation of the many kinds of suffering among the ordinary people of the world, especially the poorer and more disadvantaged. His words could apply, in particular, to the phenomenon of abortion. Abortion is not a new phenomenon, but it seems most probable that increasing economic prosperity has increased the incidence of abortion and the demand for it.