Economics 101
Sharing the Wealth

The election for POTUS has been over for some time and now the country is poised to inaugurate President Obama. The blather in the press has been over BO’s appointments, the Senate race in MN, the seating of Blago’s choice to replace BO and what the Obama team can do about the economic crisis that grips the country and the world. There stock market is rather stale, but there is hope for an Obama Rally.

With the economic crisis solutions being championed, there still is a holdover from the election campaign. That is President elect Obama’s comment to Joe the Plumber about “sharing the wealth”. What does this mean? How is it applied by the government? The idea of taking from the “rich” and giving to the “poor” is a romantic notion rooted in the heroic Robin Hood. But, there are complex issues here, not the least of which are definitions of “rich” and “poor”, and how much is to be shared.

It does appear that increasing taxes [or repealing the Bush tax cuts] is a bit of a back burner issue at the current juncture. In fact, there is talk of a $300B tax cut including some for business. That is a appositive step for which BO should be applauded. However, tax cuts, the enormous new stimulus being proposed by the Obama team, along with TARP and the numerous other rescues must be paid for at some time. Eventually, all what the government has done and will do has to be repaid. BO always talked of cutting taxes for 90% of the population. So, imagine the size of the tax increases on the remaining 10%. Tax increases to “share the wealth” are being delayed not scrapped.

It is no secret that some in society contribute more and earn more. Why? Opportunity, positioning, timing, all come into play. But, many produce more based on innate abilities and hard work. And, the reward for folks in our economic system is “more”…wealth, power and prestige. There are two obvious results from a system that rewards the able hard working individual…greed and envy. The greedy want more and the envious want what others have. Neither should be the driver in a re-distribution ethic. The politics of greed and envy are equally to be avoided.

When considering the question of “Who are the rich?” I submit that each and every American is “rich” vis a vis the rest of the world. Of course, that is not the majority view in this country where there is a desire to compare the “rich” with the “poor”. And, that is a moving target as witnessed by the changes in what earning level determines the middle class in the Obama campaign.

The state re-distributes that which was distributed originally through the economic system. This is done through the power of taxation. The excess of the “rich” is redistributed to the “poor” by taxing the “rich”. Can there be a more inefficient system? For the state to do this requires a massive bureaucratic system. Hundreds and thousands of employees at the state and federal level are required to carry out this redistribution. It costs millions of dollars in overhead before the “poor” receive a penny. And, what about the taxed “rich”? Why will they be willing to work hard or use their abilities to have their earnings diverted through the government to those who did not earn it? Why not invest in tax free investments or take their funds elsewhere. In a global economy, US citizens are not tied to the US economy. Or, what if taxes mollify greed to the point where the rich are satisfied with the status quo? Less work, overseas investment and just sitting on funds all leads to less income for the “rich” to be taxed and redistributed.

The welfare system shows how poorly redistribution works. Welfare begets more welfare. The recipient of welfare is not benefited if he has no idea of how to use the cash, except to be a consumer. There is no making the “poor” “rich” through redistribution. If the distributee has no ability or self-discipline to generate surplus, then they will obviously continue to need redistributed cash. Investment of excess has been the engine of capitalism, not redistribution by taxation. A redistribution scheme produces nothing and without wise investment of the excess, income ceases.

Redistribution is a threat to the formation of capital. Redistribution takes excess that could be invested and distributes it to individuals who do not invest. Redistribution programs also vest more and more authority in the state that holds the taxing power. The “poor” increasing look to the state to cure their plight of not being “rich”. It keeps individuals from looking to themselves for solutions. And, redistribution, by taxing the “rich”, asserts the proposition that the “poor” are “poor” because the “rich” are “rich”. Nannie State must make all her children equal. The “poor” are entitled to be “rich” and the “rich to be “less rich” for the sake of equity.

Socialism as an economic system has never lead to all being equally rich. Rather, it results in an equality of poverty. “Spreading the wealth” dissipates the wealth. Redistribution makes us all dependant on the state because its redistribution has undermined the source and process of wealth creation. Witness the intrusion of the federal government into the market place last year, and continuing. “Bailouts” to large corporations are welfare for the wealthy and, in the case of the financial system, stupid and/or corrupt decision makers. We are told, “It would be worse if we [Uncle Sam] did not intervene.” But, who can tell? It is clear that the state in now deeply involved in the free market system. Who will be next to request corporate welfare?

Christians never look to the Nannie State to being bout equality. A Christian also knows that equality of material wealth is not the goal of living on this earth. There will be rich and there will be poor. Jesus Himself says: You will always have the poor [Matt. 26:11]. Christians are to assist the poor; it is evidence of their Christianity. But, assistance is of a voluntary nature. It is not the involuntary taxation of the state leading to redistribution. Christians give to the poor because of a changed heart, changed by faith in Jesus Christ. The haves want to help the have nots in their community. This is not an impersonal, forced transaction. It is an outreach to those created in the image of God in a personal and compassionate way.

One who is not counted among the faithful Christians, or one who championed the people, Machiavelli, recognized the problems with forced redistribution through taxation:

One man should not be afraid of improving his possessions, lest they be taken away from him, or another deterred by high taxes from starting a new business, Rather the prince should be ready to reward men who want to do these things and anyone who wants in any way to increase the prosperity of his city or his state.

Machiavelli believed that the entrepreneur should not be punished with taxes for his personal improvement translates into improvement for the state. The Christian goes one step further. He sees such programs as a reliance on the state so as to make the state god. This displaces the God of the Universe with an idol. The Church must come forward and be the Church, reaching out to its own and then to the general community to help those in need. Love and charity have been central pieces in the Christian ethic. It is a giving freely of what is available to give, not taking. It is action without mandate, coercion or redistribution. It is part of the service and obedience of a Christian.

2009
It is going to be an exciting year!

We first heard of her in the late summer of 2006. Lucas went to Fairfax, VA, to begin teaching and coaching soccer at NVCA. She assisted him with the boy's team and he her with the girl's. She was from rural PA [eastern]; played soccer in college; attended a small Christian liberal arts school [Cedarville]; and was a Christian [Baptist]. But, what really caught our attention was the fist week of school when Lucas contracted a nasty virus. He was home in bed in Arlington for about four days calling constantly about what to do next to get better. She showed up at his door with soup and a "what can I do spirit"! Understand, Arlington is only about 8-10 miles from Fairfax but a 40 minute drive. This is some young lady we thought.

During the year there was much discussion about her. And, she was there for him when he was challenged by the NVCA folks about not being a "real" evangelical Christian in the Northern VA sense. We always asked to meet her when we went to see Lucas, but we were politely rebuffed…by him. We knew why. He knew when we met her we would take to her. Finally, near the end of the school year we met. He was right…she was a gem.

Lucas has had many wonderful influences in his life, male and female. This young lady had the characteristics of three of the females rolled into one. What a work of God's providential blessing was her presence in Lucas' life. Since the spring of 2007 a friendship has blossomed into a relationship. We have met her family and we see why she is the person she is. She has an older brother who is a missionary and two younger sisters. Her dad is a leader in his church and her mother is lovely Christian woman who is every ounce a nurturer and encourager.

Back in October, on a truck ride with her dad, Lucas asked for his daughter's hand as his wife. For six hours they together talked about faith, family and two living as one under the Lordship of Christ…and said yes. Sister Barb helped Lucas choose a ring. And, this past weekend, as he planned for several weeks, he asked her to be his life's partner when we all traveled to New York. And………she said yes!

Part of the glorious season of Christmas is about a betrothal; one that preceded the Incarnation. We are so thankful what our great God has done in and with Lucas' life and that He has in His grace, mercy and wisdom brought to Lucas as a for life help mate a godly woman justified by faith in Christ. Join us in this season of Joy as we celebrate the engagement of Lucas to Katie Walter. When you meet her you will love her as we do and see God's fingerprints all over the two of them.

Living in the World
Science and Creation

Wooly Mammoth DNA has been harvested. Should we then try and create a Wooly Mammoth? One of the changes that will occur in the new Presidential administration will be in regard to stem cell research. The extent and type of stem cell research will stir controversy, especially with Petri dish embryos. The real issue here is how we treat creation.

Science today believes it can conquer nature. In fact, modern science pursues all knowledge and power as its mandate. It has come a long way from a set of procedures and experimental methods. Science has become the cultural motor. That is even more so with the explosion of technology and applied science. Michael Polayni as a scientist was one who came to understand the faulty vision of the new science with respect to knowledge. But, he is the exception. Science and scientists believe they are the fount and finder of all true knowledge.

When Leon Kass became the Chairman of the president’s Council of Bioethics he had the council members read Hawthorne’s story “The Birthmark” which demonstrated how it was fatal to seek perfection and total control. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Abolition of Man:

For the wise man of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline and virtue.

Modern science seeks all knowledge un-tethered from self-discipline and virtue. It has a mission to frame reality, not conform to it. Pursuing nature to find knowledge is the only virtue.

For Christians, this is a misinterpretation of creation. In Scripture, Adam is given dominion over the creation of God. His dominion is linked to his faithfulness to the Creator. Modern science tries to subdue creation apart from any concept of a Creator let alone faithfulness to Him. Thus, nature can be conquered and mastered without any reference to anything but the need to know. This is the secularization of science.

When creation is solely for manipulation to bring nature in compliance with the desires of men, we have lost engagement with the Creator. Nature and reality become the sole domain of science when the Creator is separated from inquiry. This leaves Christianity as a spiritualized practice, fully private. Why? Christian belief and practice have nothing to do with reality, the real world, but is an internalized “what works for you” system. But, true Christianity is closely connected to creation. We serve God in creation, an ordered creation, ordered by a Creator. This is incompatible with a secularized science disconnected from a Creator with responsibility to Him. The modern scientific view of molding creation with science and technology sees nothing beyond science. Such a practice removes the Creator from the lives of most folks. This leads to several results.

Man becomes the new master, eliminating the real Master. There is no check to what man does in nature except man, or more correctly, the man with the most power. We are left with, at best, a Deist God who may be a Creator but does not much care about that creation. He has fallen asleep, taken a hike or is incapable of intervening into His Creation. We have a scary randomness because there is not an ordering and providential Creator. And, there is no natural revelation from which to know God, for He is unknowable in creation. Nature is only the raw material for an advancing, scientifically driven society desiring to subdue all of nature to its own desires and ends.

This is why the resurrection of Christ in anathema to secular science. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, tells the believer that their faith is futile and pointless, they are still in their sins and trespasses, if the resurrection did not occur. And, this is not some internalized ideal of a Christ rising in your heart. No, Paul says people are liars [that is non truth tellers] if Jesus in not alive. Paul’s point: the resurrection occurred in space and time and conforms to reality, it is true. The resurrection points back to creation. It was a supernatural event in the natural world, an event impossible by science. Science can neither prove nor disprove the resurrection, but if it is really true, science in no longer the shaper of reality and the Creator must always be accounted for in science.

Should we produce a wooly mammoth just because we can? Modern secular science responds with an unequivocal yes. But, does it comport with the Creator’s concept of creation? Does it assist mankind in conforming to the Creator’s reality? Or, is it merely an attempt to be a creator just like God or to show man is god? For the Christian, technology and applied science is not a means to conform and subdue nature. Rather, it is a means to better understanding creation, the Creator and our role and relation to it and Him. Only then will science be turned away from secularization, and the will of man, and returned to a relationship with the Creator, and the will of God.

Living in the World
Dream or Opportunity

The recent mortgage crisis that has lead to the credit problems in the world economy has been based on achieving “the American Dream.” The theory is that everyone in America is entitled to be a home owner. From 2002 to early this year, homes have been sold to many people in many ways. Unprecedented home ownership has lead to unprecedented financial problems.

Smart people bundled questionable loans, made them into securities and sold them all over the world. By keeping the prime rate low, the Federal Reserve made money cheap to obtain. Together [cheap money and securitizing bad loans] the so called “housing bubble” was created. The bubble burst and the entire world has been splashed with red ink. The stock markets have tanked, millions of investors have lost the lion’s share of their retirement investments, job losses are rapidly increasing, the government is madly printing money and increasing national debt to try and stem the tide. To date, it has had very little impact. The “American Dream” has become the “American Nightmare”.

It seems like an appropriate time to revisit this idea of home ownership as “the American Dream”. A dream is, after all, something that is not real. It may be a subconscious idea of what the dreamer wants to be real. Yet, is does not usually comport with the way it is. And, when you think about it, that is the housing crisis. Who would actually believe that non qualified individuals could actually be homeowners? No docs, no down payments, no income, variable low rates, interest only…all these ideas could only seemingly work in an artificial environment. That environment was the concept that the housing bubble would never bust. Sure you can’t own a home. But, we can get you in a home with unrealistic terms. And, when the good terms expire, you can refinance using the increased equity value that your home will gain during the time you hold the original loan.

The only problem was that values of homes plummeted. When the “good deals” expired, instead of a higher value, you had less equity than you were obligated to pay. The dream died, as dreams always do when you wake up. But, unlike dreams in your head, real life consequences ensued. And, the consequences were visited on us all. The “American Dream” lead to a “Worldwide Nightmare”.

The United States used to be called the land of opportunity, not dreams. Opportunities are based on substance—education and employment, for instance. Obtain a good education, get a job, earn money and save for a down payment, then you can buy the home of your “dreams”. The dream is achieved by taking advantage of the opportunities. Home ownership was always looked upon as a tangible achievement by industrious, hardworking folk who made a dream tangible.

In the past half dozen years, homeownership became an entitlement. Congresscreatures seeking votes, unscrupulous lenders seeking wealth, and greedy, envious people who wanted a home they could not afford, combined to concoct schemes that really were dreams.
Opportunity provides access to knowledge, self discipline and virtue that can be translated into rewards, financial and otherwise. The attempt to hand out rewards without effort equals a dream turned nightmare. It just does not work. Consider welfare payments, individual and corporate. What have they accomplished over the years? Dis-incentive and stagnation result. Recipients of the government largess rarely move on to personal responsibility and accomplishment without the need of government help.

How do we escape this mess? It all starts with the government. As a social institution, the government should promote opportunity so people can achieve their dreams. It is true; some will not take advantage of the opportunity. But, that is the individual’s failure to cultivate the opportunity. Fulfilling dreams through magical schemes that seem impossible is impossible. Trying to have dreams substitute for opportunity and hard work is a dead end process. Let us make the US the land of opportunity again. Please Uncle Sam, no more trillion dollar nightmares that our grandchildren will be paying. Give us opportunity not unrealized dreams.

Living in the World
Indian Summer 2008

Last week we had some horrendous winter weather…snow, wind and cold. I was stuck on US 322 Wednesday, October 29, because the snowy conditions lead to a traffic accident that turned the highway into a parking lot. The snow melted and the weather has been quite nice since. Since a week ago, the high temperatures have been creeping up and up. The last two days have seen middle sixties. We are experiencing a magnificent Indian Summer. Last week was Squaw Winter which must occur before Indian Summer.

Recently, I mentioned this Squaw Winter/Indian Summer relation and a person to whom I was speaking never heard such a thing. Like most concepts in a post-modern world, Indian Summer is whatever and whenever you want it to be. Well, guess what? That ain’t so. The meaning of Indian Summer is a concrete and absolute here in the Eastern Continental Divide. To understand the objective, true meaning of Indian Summer unsullied by contemporary mushy, subjective views of this world, read the following:

I have a little something that I would like to pass on to you about weather. Call it a bit of weather wisdom. I know you have heard of a period of weather in the Fall of the year called “Indian Summer”. Now some weather men refer to it as if they may hve invented it. They refer to any period of warm days in the Fall as Indian Summer. Now, let me give you the truth about Indian Summer. Native American Indians and old timers for many years know there is no timetable for Indian Summer. There’s no month or any specific time period for it. It is a time in the Fall that the weather is warm and hazy. But first, there must be a winter episode where snow falls and accumulates on the surface of the ground. The first snow that lies on the ground is called “Squaw Winter”. When the snow melts, the first day or period of days after that the weather is warm and hazy, that’s Indian Summer. You may have it or you may not, but warm days without having Squaw Winter is not Indian Summer.

Clarence C. Kriner, Grandpa: His Life at the Old Home and Beyond, [Clearfield, PA: SGM Press, 2006], p. 31.

Around these parts we are enjoying “real” Indian Summer because we have had Squaw Winter. I hope you too are enjoying Indian Summer, or you have it to look forward to if you have yet to experience Squaw Winter. If you do not have Squaw Winter, or winter of any kind, too bad, you will never experience Indian Summer. The weather forecast indicates a return to normal fall weather this weekend. So, the temperate weather will come to an end, but it has been a thoroughly enjoyable Indian Summer of 2008.

Election 2008
The Day After

Some initial musings on Election 2008 on the day after:

1] It truly is historic that America elected a black man as POTUS. I am long enough in the tooth to remember the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s. From the assassinations of 1968 to forty years later, a black President…truly amazing and a statement of how the Republic works. I am sure the gushing and fawning will be over the top, especially from a media that so desperately wanted to see BO win, yet it is a milestone in our history.

2] I am always impressed by split party voting. Most American voters make decisions on respective candidates, not their parties, and that is a very good thing.

3] BO was as liberal a state and federal senator as they come. And, he has had no stomach for standing up to his party. I hear post-election pundits say he will govern from the center. But, there is no evidence to believe that. Will he resist the left leaning policies of his party that he so openly embraced now that he is POTUS? He certainly ran his election as if he was now a centrist. We all must watch carefully what happens for that will indicate who BI really is…what we could not discern during the election campaign.

4] As we ponder the historicity of the moment, some big questions remain. Will the race card forever be jettisoned since a black man has won the big enchilada? Or, will all objection to the new President’s policies and positions, warranted and unwarranted, be met with a racism charge? Will BO be subject to the same withering vitriolic and mean spirited attacks Bush had to endure? Or, will BO be insulted from that because he is the first black President? Will the skin tone of the President be used to silence all opposition to the liberal agenda if in fact the real BO is the far left senator he has been known to be not the centrist he held himself out to be during the campaign? The debate permitted over coming governmental initiatives will tell the tale.

5] Finally, BO will be my President, and Scripture directs that we pray for him as the civil magistrate who leads this country. That, all Christians must do whether you agree with him or not.

It will be an interesting four years.

Election 2008
Election Day

It is finally here…3 cheers! Go to the polls and exercise your franchise…your vote. In the history of the world few have had the opportunity to choose their leaders on the local, regional and national level. Do not take that right for granted, it has been paid for in blood. But, also remember you are voting for mere fallible men or women. They hold no key to your ultimate destiny or wellbeing. Every politician is a sinner, some saved by grace, others not. Their plans and ideas are temporal, perishable and incapable of eternal or permanent change. For Christians, our trust is not in McCain or Obama or the hundreds of others running for public office today.

It cannot be said better than Psalm 146:

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob;
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

So, vote for the candidates; put your trust in the Sovereign of not only the US but all the earth!