My blog is titled “I’ve been thinking” and that is what this writing is, just some thoughts. There are smarter people than me, I am just a country boy trying to survive in this world and help others along the way. So take it for what it is worth, any comments are welcome.
Some say capitalism is based totally on greed and that it has failed. In light of the Wall Street fiascos that may seem correct. I have read a lot of stuff promoting socialism or other redistribution of wealth schemes that are put forth to cure the evils of capitalism. I admit that I am not an economist, do not understand Wall Street very well, and am not wealthy, but like many, I have my opinions. At age 63 my main concern is that my grandchildren have as much opportunity and freedom as I did to make a living, experience success, and maybe even experience failure and the challenge of starting over. I also want them to have the joy and self esteem of providing for themselves and their families and trusting in God as their higher power, not government. I also recognize that some people cannot take care of themselves and that we need to help them survive.
I have been thinking about this a lot. I am open to other ideas and welcome any questions or comments on my thoughts.
Capitalism may be greed driven to some, that is obvious. Some want wealth more than anything in the world. Some gain their wealth honestly, some dishonestly, that has been true for the history of the world. I actually like the idea that i could be wealthy although it probably won’t happen to me! But there are other motivations too.
To some it is the reward for innovation that makes all our lives better. That list is endless, from television to communication systems to automobiles etc etc etc. some of the motivation for these inventions was curiosity, some to prove they could do it, and some to build wealth. Regardless of the reason, we are better off for these things in spite of the wealth others built by inventing them.
Now I hear that these big businesses have control over us because of their wealth and their products that we need, in addition to credit that we think we need in order to buy these products. I think they only have the power that we let them have by our inability to control our own spending and greed for these things. We have a choice to buy what we want and to buy it where we want. We are free to say yes or no to the plethora of advertisements that plague us or even the predatory loan phone calls we receive, I contend that we don’t say no because we do not understand our priorities as being ultimate peace and happiness, instead of instant gratification.
Millions of people depend upon these large corporations success as we have IRA’s, pensions, or other long term savings that contain stocks in these companies. I want them to succeed. I also believe that many of these corporations pay out way too much to their executives, but am not jealous because I know what the cost is to some of them who have climbed the corporate ladder. I was on it myself and saw people who missed out on a lot of life because of their addiction to work. If they get wealthy while providing me with a growing nest egg for my retirement I have little complaint about it.
I do feel for the employees who get “handled” by these corporations, but also believe they (we, I have been there) can or should do more to manage our own careers which are our businesses.
Many say that the wealthy have all the power under capitalism. Again, that may be true. I kind of understand the people that want wealth for what it can buy and how your lifestyle can be upgraded exponentially, although I do not agree with using money that way. I respect most the people who give back to charities, churches and other organizations that help others.
The people who just seem to want the power that money brings scare me. If people want money just for the power, what is their goal? I am suspicious of that. Many advocate putting the government in control of redistributing folks’ earnings to the whole population. That may sound good, but I don’t like the idea of someone else deciding who should get what, and how much is enough for anyone. Will the receivers of the unearned money ever get enough to buy the things that the earners provide and also purchase for themselves? The government currently has plenty of power, taxation, laws, even moral decrees that feel like attempts to manage our lives. Where does it end? Where will it end if we are dependent upon them?
Big corporations are accused of exploiting the customer, but the customers have a choice. We have little choices with government edicts such as taxes or laws that force us to comply with. I fear big government as much more than big corporations. The oil spill, Katrina and illegal aliens are just a few examples of how big bureaucracy has gone amok. Do we really want it bigger? What will happen with health care?
I think the answer to our problem is education and values. We need to understand debt, not just how it works, but what it does for us and to us. I grew up in a small town where we had layaway plans at stores; folks would come in with $20 once a month to buy a $60 item in three months; I doubt if anyone under 50 recalls this idea. Now we charge the $60 today and gripe about the interest and the unmanageable balance on our credit cards. In my town work was viewed as a normal, good thing. I don’t recall folks griping about their jobs, they were happy to have them and understood how their paychecks supported them. Illegal aliens wouldn’t have had many opportunities there. They weren’t as concerned about what they were doing as how well they were doing it for their employer. If something cost too much they didn’t buy it. Most lived in modest or rented homes. You can’t exploit someone if they don’t participate. I learned a lot there, but admittedly didn’t use all I learned over my life. Now I am trying to teach these concepts to my family in hopes that they live happy lives. They don’t need a nanny, they need to learn to be creative, have a servant’s attitude about work, keep abreast of the employment markets, and manage their money. Sounds simple but it isn’t, there is more too it. That is where practical education comes in.
We can’t control the stock market, the economy or much else, but we can control a lot and if we trust our real Higher power we can make it and pursue happiness.
Hi Rob,
I have so many other things going this AM that I was going to skip your article until I had more time. But I then thought I would quickly scan it and: was hooked, very well thought out article. I, as you, have been trying to understand and search for the reasonable points of the liberal agenda.
There have been times they have started to infiltrate my thinking with their stated goals of “less greed” “less poverty” “less uninsured” “less corruption” ect. ect. Who can reasonably object to those humanitarian principles? But their mantra of “it’s just for the children, the elderly, and the downtrodden” is sickening disingenuous. Their: How Compassionate, How Generous, How Honest, How Spiritual, we are and How Uncaring, How Racist, How Greedy, How Closed Minded, you are to disagree with our wonderfulness is ready to make my head explode. I do not say this in judgment of them, only in observation of their agenda and consequences of their self serving motives.
Our country grew in just 200 years to the greatest nation on earth; the greatest in power, wealth, freedom and compassion. It was conceived under Christian principles, explosive capitalism, individual responsibility, and freedom for all to pursue prosperity and happiness, so that, thus empowered, we were enabled to help our families, our neighbors, needing a helping hand to experience the same joy of participation. The system worked and worked well unlike the bloated, inefficient, ineffective, big government bureaucracies our founding fathers had suffered under and rejected.
Why would we go back to the tyranny and failure of big government control? Government has minimized its main purpose of protecting us to stuffing their invasive tentacles in all aspects of our lives while declaring war on our Christian foundation.
We are paying the consequences. We and our kids have been taught we are just an accident of nature, evolved from mutations of a primordially soupy swamp creature that somehow came from who knows where. Talk about being educated to imbecility. No wonder we have the high suicide rate we do, no wonder so many of us are turning to drugs and alcohol, no wonder we are murdering millions of innocent babies as a reasonable choice, no wonder the notion of absolute truth is touted as absurd, no wonder we are asked to accept deviant life styles as a rational choice, no wonder pornography has flooded our homes even Christian homes, no wonder divorce is accepted as the easiest way to solve marriage problems even Chrisian marriges, no wonder believers in the most reasonable explanation of reality are shunned as believers in fairy tales, no wonder we are being programmed with propaganda to look to government not, God, to give us meaning and security.
Let’s look at the government’s report card since they have kicked out God out and depended on their brilliance.
They have bankrupted the Postal Service, bankrupted Social Security, bankrupted Medicare, bankrupted Medicaid, bankrupted Freddy Mac, bankrupted Fannie Mae, bankrupted the Department of Welfare, bankrupted the Department of Education, bankrupted nearly every aspect of our government, paralyzed the economic engine of our country, and now the United States of America is so far in debt it’s impossible to comprehend let alone pay for. And now we are depending on those same folks to run another sixth of our economy by providing sufficient, affordable, and effective healthcare?
Our invasive political nanny state government has falsely identified many victim groups to take care of under the lie “you are innocent victims and need our help’. Those victim groups are indeed innocent victims but not from our system of individually responsibility and joy of participation but from the very people that are claiming to help them. Those so called victim groups are being exploited by some of our power hungry, self serving, political leaders, just to buy their vote with other people’s money. The question they want us to ask is: what is good for me? not: what is good for our country? All those victims are being robbed of the joy of participation under lie they need government for all their needs. The socialists in our government don’t want us to be educated by history. So they just change it or call it old fashion and outdated, not relative to today’s society. All socialistic, secular, spread the wealth, keep me in power, governments eventually will and have spread poverty and dependency, not peace and prosperity.
Now the socialists are quoting Scripture as justification for their big government agenda. Good luck with that. Pray for them, they are on slippery footing. Even a quick overview of the word of God states: work out your own salvation, if you don’t work you won’t eat, the poor will always be with us, give what you have to the poor not give to the government to give to the poor, the good Samaritan did not call the government officials to take care of the beaten traveler, he personally helped.
We all have a responsibility to help the downtrodden and the helpless among us but not to make dependant vegetables out of them. I realize families helping families, neighbors helping neighbors, church congregations helping the helpless cannot under our present stifling tax system fill all the needs. And I am also not naive enough to expect the government will suddenly see the light and allow the private sector to handle the needs of the helpless. All I would hope is the politicians would provide incentives to appeal to the selfish nature in all of us to migrate toward the joy of participation rather than exploiting that selfishness for propose of maintaining their power. Everyone can enjoy their contribution of work no matter how small their physical limitations might curtail. At the end of each day of work when God created the universe, he saw “that it was good”. He was happy with his work and found pleasure with His work. We are all made in the image of God and, as such, know the joy we feel when we complete a job well done. Dependency on government destroys that joy of work and stifles our potential as individuals and as a nation.
Please tell me where my thinking is wandering away from truth. I do not want to be a “closed minded” Christian. I am enjoying the process of renewing my mind.
Happy Day,
Joe
Thanks for the well comment Joe, very well thought out