Topic: Religion and Government
Debt, Wealth and Law An examination of two basic societal flaws that underlie America's troubles.by Lou Poumakis
(libertarian)
Sunday, December 28, 2008
We are all very much aware that America is in trouble today. Our foreign policy is in shambles, the economy is in free-fall, personal and government debt have grown to astronomical proportions, disaster is at our doorstep and to top it all off, no one in any position of responsibility seems to know what to do about it. I submit that this is the case because no one is willing to look deep enough into the roots of the problems to develop a strategy that has any chance of success. The preference seems to be to come up with a solution that doesn’t require any real change in how we live and think as a people. The feeling is that we are basically OK, the system is fundamentally sound and all we need to do is tweak a little here or there and everything will be just hunky-dory once again. And if that’s not in the cards, let’s at least find a way to transfer the problems to the next generation and let our children work their way out of the mess we leave behind.
There are many things wrong in our country today but I would like to look at two that appear to me to be fundamental to most of the rest. First is the extent to which we as a culture have become debt ridden. Debt, historically, has always led to slavery and we as a people have allowed ourselves to slip into what amounts to a condition of slavery to civil and especially the Federal government. We have allowed the government and quasi-government agencies to control our money, our education, our retirement, our medical care and many other aspects of our personal lives. What is a slave? Is it not someone who is forced to work and then give all his wages to his master in return for all the necessities of life? Are we not slaves to the extent we are forced to transfer our income to government in return for their providence? Yes, we voted to place ourselves in this position but there’s no way out, no turning back the clock, is there? We are just as stuck in our present condition as were the slaves of our earlier history.
The second and even more fundamental problem America faces today is the degeneration of our once proud Republic into first a democracy and now an oligarchy, rule by the extremely wealthy few. We go to the polls faithfully but whichever party wins, nothing really changes. Money rules in Washington and those with the most money control all the offices. This should not surprise anyone; we should expect people with money to protect their own interests and, if those interests don’t happen to coincide with the interests of the public at large, so much the worse for them. Governmental authority in this country shifted from the counties to the states to the Federal level. Why? Because the wealth and power of the very rich is enhanced with fewer, or preferably a single point of control over civil government. The next step, as globalism progresses, will be one world government. So the basic problem is not that we have evil men ruling over us. They are really not very different from us; were our positions reversed, we would be doing the same sorts of things as they. The problem is that we have allowed the wealth differential to increase to the enormous differences we see today. We should not expect people with wealth and incomes millions of times greater than the average to sit back and not exercise, to their own advantage, the enormous power that comes with great wealth.
The question that immediately comes to mind is, so what, what can we do about this situation? Well, first I would point out that this wealth disparity did not exist in early America. The Puritans that founded this country started out with the right idea but didn’t hold to their original principles strictly enough. They started with God’s law as the premise for all law but, over time, relaxed and became less and less diligent in following it. What bearing though would God’s law have on the problems of debt and excessive wealth? Of the many injunctions we find in that law, two stand out as pertinent: First there was the year of release which required that all debts be forgiven every seven years and then there was the Jubilee that restored all property back to the original family owners every fiftieth year.
The year of release prevented long-term debt. Loans were made on the basis of their being repaid by the seventh year. They were much more restricted in the sixth year than in the second or third. This made every person in the nation debt free at least once in every seven years, whether he liked it or not. It gave the individual prone to fall into debt a chance to mend his ways; he had a new start every seven years. Also, with all the debt of the entire nation cleared every seventh year, deficit spending was strictly curtailed.
The Jubilee prevented the accumulation of land and its associated wealth from falling into the hands of a few families. Land could be sold (based on its productivity) but its value would diminish as the Jubilee approached. This didn’t prevent the more industrious from outdoing and becoming more prosperous than their neighbors. But it did prevent them from enslaving their neighbors and becoming their masters. This periodic re-balancing of the distribution of the nation’s wealth made possible the continuance of a reasonably balanced economy and allowed a representative form of government to function.
Much more could be said about God’s law and its applicability today but we can see from just these two injunctions how much wisdom is to be found in therein. Indeed, virtually all our troubles can be traced back to our forefathers’ failure to fully implement and adhere to that divinely inspired law-word. Likewise, we today will continue to flounder and fail in one program after another until we realize we need to go back to the basics, the basics of God’s law and God’s word. God’s word very clearly tells us that we are not able to govern ourselves: "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). The choice is simple, we can adopt God’s law to govern us or we can continue on the path of least resistance that we have been following, the end result of which is despair, failure, poverty and slavery.
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article are those of Lou Poumakis only and do not represent
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It is unfortunate that a thinking person should arrive at these conclusions. America has never had a foreign policy, except that its oceans, like Switzerland's mountains, were its foreign policy. At no time has any power in the western hemisphere been but a lunchbag for America since it became a nation. The Pacific and Atlantic Oceans have been its foreign seperation and comprised the foundation of America's isolation until WW II. Even to day you will find many Americans who are CONVINCED that America should NOT engage in and interaction with ANY other country and should get out of the United Nations, NOW.
No, America has never had a foreign policy because every president creates and is exclusively responsible about foreign policy (except for war). The Constitution doesn't state a policy, the preamble doesn't state a policy, the admendments don't state a policy, we don't have a foreign policy.
However, we do have the right to vote and to run for office. Good luck with that.
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