You Didn't Build That!

Obama's recent remark about successful Americans has stuck a nerve, spawning reams of replies.

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me because they want to give something back," the president said. "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.  "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen," he said. "The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

But what's sparking this reply is not so much his remark as the responses of many who are rightly critical of his theology, but not critical enough. Are businesses helped by roads, the rule of law, and other government provided infrastructure? Does this mean that the government should get some (very small) amount of credit for helping people build their business? Not at all. 
Courts, police, firemen, and roads are all paid for by people who build things and do things to provide goods and services. The  just marketplace enforced by courts (obviously very imperfectly today) is a direct result of the labor of people who build things and do things. It's their labor that generates the money to fund these services. Roads, bridges, and Intellectual property (IP) enforcement are all provided by the labor of working people. In fact, in a just society, any benefit they derive from these services is less than the cost they pay because the people who build things and do things provide these services not just to themselves but to all the other people who are too old, or too young, or too sick, or too lazy to provide these things for themselves.

"But," a typical Obama defender replies, "the point Obama was making is that the business did not have to build the road. Other people built the road." True, but irrelevant to this discussion. Suppose a growing business erects a building - did they mine the ore and make the steel? Did they grow the trees and make the lumber? No, of course not. But they still built the building - all by themselves. It was their capital that funded the labor of all the other people that did do those jobs. That's why the Business owns the building at the end, not the smelter or the sawmill. The same is true of infrastructure. If there is anyone to thank, it is the generations of laborers who went before us, not the government.

This is not to deny that there are many who live off the labor of others - from big businesses to welfare recipients. But even these freeloaders are living off of the backs of those who build things and do things - not the government. The government can only give people what it first took from them. Anything the government provides comes from the labor of working people. If Obama's logic, that successful people owe a part of their success to the government, was correct, a thief who robbed a store at gunpoint of $10,000 and then gave back $9,000 to the store, would become partly responsible for the success of the store. 

Even if the Government acted like that thief, confiscating the fruit of our labor and using the funds to help us, it would not validate Obama's claim that we didn't build our businesses solely by our labor. But the situation is actually even worse. Congress and Executive office, enabled by the courts, take our wealth from us and use it to destroy us. They are like the thief who steals $10,000 from the store and then uses it to hire vandals to throw rocks through the store windows or hackers to crash their computer system. 

But there's a second area where Obama is dead wrong,  He's actually right about the fact that people have not gotten wealthy because they were so smart. But he's dead wrong about how they did get wealthy. No, they didn't get wealthy because they were so smart or because they were helped by government funded education or enabled by the "great American system." In fact Scripture directly warns against such thinking. 

Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: 

Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; 

Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;

And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 8:11-18.

If you have be acquired wealth, it is because the Lord has favored you and has been gracious toward you, giving you something you did not deserve.
Do you thank him for this goodness and use his gifts for the advancement of his kingdom?

Wal-Mart vs. Washington, D.C.

I didn't write this (it was anonymously posted on the internet) and I haven't checked all the numbers, but they look about right and they don't directly affect the point.

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.

2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.

6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined,
and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.

8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.

9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.

11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)

12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart.

You may think that I am anti-capitalism, but actually I am laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.
Dear Washington D. C.,

a. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

b. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

c. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

d. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right;

$1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more..

e. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

f. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

g. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

You have FAILED in every "government service" you have attempted. AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM ??  It is obvious that the majority of Washington D.C. is corrupt.

It's Conservative! But Is It Biblical?

I ran across this little video made in 1948 (along with a number of similar ones) on Utube. It presents the classic conservative message very well - that freedom to worship where we want, to labor as we see fit, to speak as we please, and so on, made America a great and wealthy nation.



It's very well done, interesting, and even a little entertaining, but is it right? It's right wing, but is it true when measured by the Truth?

Contrast their message with Deuteronomy 8:6-18:

So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ...

"Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ... . Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' [or today...freedom or free enterprise has produced this wealth]

"You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day."

Moses makes it clear that freedom to worship God, freedom to labor for our own benefit, and freedom to speak the truth are not the cause of our prosperity, they are the result of God's blessing.

If 60 years ago the Christian Right was already saying that their hand had gotten them this wealth, is it any surprise that today we find ourselves visited by the curses spelled out in Deuternonomy 27 & 28?

Correction Please

The New York Times today (in Intervention is Bold But Has A Basis In History ) quoted Nancy Koehn, a historian at the Harvard Business School, saying,"'The goal [referring to bailout activity -PA] is to get the engine of capitalism going as productively as possible, ... Ideology is a luxury good in times of crisis.'”

Ideology according to my Random House Dictionary is "the body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides an individual, social movement, institution, class, or large group."

Far from being a luxury to be reliquished, ideology is absolutely vital in a crisis. In hard times people are forced to make hard choices between A or B that reveal their true priorities and values. A crisis simply reveals ones true ideology.

What Nancy Koehn has just revealed is that she does not believe in the constitution, liberty, or the free market. To her these are luxuries. Her ideology is socialism, statism, and government managed lives. Far from being relinquished as a luxury in this crisis, it is being followed exactly.

Neither should the phenomenon on Wall Street today be confused with a free market economy. It much more closely resembles a government sponsored monopoly in debt tokens that also happen to be the government mandated medium of exchange.