We have a new president. I am reading another book. Anything else?
The book I am reading was from 1968 (the year I was born). It is titled Lessons from History and while the authors did not have a proper relationship to God, they had indeed learned a few things. I have not yet finished, but it seems their number one priority for everyone is to have the same opportunity for a great education and opportunity to make use of their individual abilities. They were adamant that despite what our constitution says, people are not created equal and they are definitely not born into equal circumstances.
They did recognize that the role of governments is to strike a balance between capitalism and socialism and has been since before most people could read. They had examples of socialism collapsing on itself thousands of years ago and of capitalism collapsing on itself thousands of year ago. As the Bible tells us, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Individuals need enough incentive to work hard, yet the wealth cannot be allowed to be concentrated among too few individuals.
There are calls for the new president and the government to give people free everything. Without incentive, the people do nothing.
There are calls for the new president and the government to tax the rich. Without taxes, the rich just get richer and fewer get rich.
The role of the government is to not give the people what they want, but what they need.
Everyone needs to have to work and the rich cannot be allowed to get too rich. I just read New York is going to charge citizens of the state who make over $100,000,000 an extra 2% income tax. If you make $100,000,000 a year, then I think you should pay more tax. Think of all the people earning minimum wage that could be paid with $100,000,000. Some jobs where you get tips, the minimum wage is less than $3. That would pay 15,000 people. Granted, that minimum wage is awful. Even at the proposed new minimum wage, that is over 3,000 people. I think they also proposed a new $15 minimum wage. $15 an hour no matter how little is produced for the hour. Where is the incentive in that?
They had a weird presentation of race, but the bottom line is that people are people, and the winners are the ones with talent and enough opportunity to put it to use.
Overall, the book links progress of history as three things: getting a higher percentage of people educated, growing technology to kill more people quickly, and getting to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Ok, so I threw that last one in myself. The authors did reference Ecclesiastes (part of which I read this morning in my daily reading) about how there is no point in anything. Ecclesiastes is not only the phrase they copied, but it is a book of the Bible pointing out how only our relationship with God has meaning. Context right?
Overall, I believe God has shown me that His plan does involve national conflicts and yes this may mean the collapse of the United States as we know it, but maybe not in my life time and it is definitely not in my power to fix. I am called to life my life following God doing the best I can to work within the existing system to provide for my family’s needs and do the work Christ has called for me to do, one day at a time. I do want a president I can be proud of who I align with on the goals for our country. But I have a Lord I can proudly serve and that will just have to be enough.