Category Archives: economics

One Moment Changes the World

One moment can change the world. Billions of human decisions are made every day across the globe. On the surface, most are innocuous or mundane, from changing a diaper to going to work. Sometimes they are history-altering, such as protests in the Ukraine or stock market crashes or rallies.

Sometimes unforeseen changes begins with a simple decision. St. Francis begins to rebuild an church one brick at a time…and a movement still vibrating begins. John Wycliffe begins translating the Bible into English and now billions can read the Scriptures in their own tongues. Bartolomeo de las Casas protests slavery and the long road to Emancipation begins. William Wilberforce stays in politics and fights for the end of slavery and scores of other causes for 50 years.

The challenges of the USA compel action, but voices of change are quickly drowned out in a sea of agitprop polemics. The current levels of hypocrisy and self-deception, short-term thinking and political manipulation are unprecedented in our history. It is not only the elites that are to blame. Millions of people are consciously or unconsciously capitulating to a fatalism of inaction. The gulf between professed principles and actual practices in widening daily. Consider:

  • “Everyone” loves the concept of a balanced budget. But no one will even begin with small cuts in over bloated salaries.
  • Immigration should be guided by law, but anyone supporting a modicum of regulation is a racist or xenophobe.
  • Millions are looking for work, but unwilling to labor in fields or service jobs.
  • Leaders decry the influence of lobbyists, then join their ranks as they depart “public service.”
  • Amoral anarchy is lamented as millions quietly engage in vicarious games and entertainment venues.
  • Tobacco is social evil number one…but billions of tax dollars flow from its consumption and we are making a worse mistake with “medical” marijuana. 
  • We advocate a healthy lifestyle, then pass out condoms to middle-school kids and offer “4th meal” fried food at midnight (to all the consumers of “medical marijuana.”)
Lamenting these and other evils, from abortion to divorce, redefinitions of marriage and family, educational outcomes and government intrusions into religion is easy – changing minds, hearts and wills in not.
Cries for spiritual awakening are the best start…and may they grow in intensity and sincerity.
Calls for activism and voting are helpful.
Maybe there is one more step…or millions of steps…that can propel lasting change. Perhaps each of us can have one moment that changes the world.
Our one moment arrives unexpectedly. It is veiled in other apparently “normal” decisions. Our moment dawns as we decide each day to love God supremely, love our neighbors unselfishly through our work and demonstrate in deed and declaration the veracity of the first principles that make for a flourishing life and society. If millions of “ordinary” people embark on a devoted and disciplined pathway of reverence for God, respect for all people, rigorous self-examination and right practices in their private and public life, the world will change. 
Some may emerge as leaders, even historic figures. Others will be agents of change one relationship at a time. Instead of continual lamentation, let’s ceaselessly labor for the common good. Instead of captivity to edutainment, let’s learn the proven pathways that yield prosperity for future generations. Instead of immediate pleasure, let’s infuse principles that allow the next generation to flourish.
One moment changes the world – it is our decision today.

Flip the Switch: Transforming Today

2014 begins with freezing temperatures across the USA, destabilizing governments in the Middle East, mixed economic news, a gridlocked federal government, and the normal hostility of elites toward any semblance of morality and common sense. In other words, just another day in our beautiful and broken world. 

Globally and nationally the cry of the populace is simple, “We need jobs!” The desire for meaningful, sustainable work is woven in to the fabric of Creation and found in every person of conscience. In spite of stock market gains and an explosion of billionaires, most of the nation and world are not feeling hopeful. this concerns offset somewhat as we discover that abject poverty is declining at a rapid rate and millions of new enterprises are beginning every day. 
The polarized political rhetoric and the simplistic thinking of the chattering classes Left and Right is not helpful in making this next year better. It is not enough to say, “more government ‘investment’ [read here more jobs for bureaucrats]!” or “the magic of the market” [forgetting that the rule of law, access to markets and personal virtue and property rights are necessary conditions for flourishing].”
As politicians maneuver for reelection, I propose a more radical approach to our future. No, it is not a bumper-sticker or a million-person march or even an Internet petition. Let’s start a revolution of humility and service through our everyday activity. Let’s “flip the switch” in our hearts and minds and recast our work – whether paid or unpaid, public or private – as humble service to God and for the common good. 
I am not suggesting an idealistic vision that avoids the drudgery and sweat of daily labor. What I am saying is that all moral and meaningful work at its core is service and when we think this way, there is more energy and wisdom that when we just do it for the paycheck. We should agitate for safe conditions and access to markets. We must uphold personal virtue and the rule of law against amorality and anarchy. We can resist the tyranny of encroaching government by exceeding standards of conduct and creation-care. 
Every company is serving the common good when they supply good jobs. Every clerk makes a difference in serving customers that contribute their resources to the economy. Volunteers sustain our communities as they offer care and services that help people thrive, from coaches to rest homes visitation. 
For people of faith, daily work is worship, as all domains are viewed  as doxological offerings to the Lord. For people of all faiths or none, an ethos of humility and service dignifies and empowers each person and helps erode the class divisions that arrogant elites and envious masses resent so much.
Let’s transform today from the inside out. Let’s offer each person we meet love and respect. Let’s give our bosses and full day’s work and our employees the resources they need for flourishing. Together we can transcend the pundits’ polemics and make our world better one decision at a time.

Surreal Subversion

American and Western European histories are filled with moral and social conflict and political battles. For the past three centuries, the trajectory toward human liberty and economic opportunity has been positive, with serious battles against totalitarianism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Coalitions of Center, Left and Right in Europe and lots of “horse-trading” in the USA have ensured relative stability for millions of people.

This stability depends upon four critical factors: consensual personal and social morality, human liberty, economic opportunity and the rule of law. These elements are interdependent and indispensable for human flourishing.

Our very civilization, built on these foundations, is threatened by the ideologues in power in Washington, D.C. (And by extension, Sacramento, CA)

I am normally optimistic, looking for the best in people, even those I disagree with. What is happening right now is the culmination of a century of subversion inaugurated by Woodrow Wilson, accelerated (with often noble intent) by FDR, turbo-charged by LBJ’s Great Society and mostly unopposed by even the Republicans designated as conservatives. The past five years, however, are fraught with exponential change that is subversive of the values enumerated above and enshrined in the Constitution.

I do not believe we can dismantle 100 years of structural change overnight…nor should we. What we must do is understand the times we live in and recognize the seriousness of our situation. All people of conscience, regardless of particular policy perspectives, must unite to stem the flood waters of self-destruction and turn the tide toward a preferred future.

Our current President and Administration are not content with adjustments that ease economic pain, build infrastructure and ensure opportunity. They are after forcible redistribution of wealth and the creation of a permanent working underclass that will vote for more largess from the federal trough. In addition to runaway spending, totalitarian control over health care and education and deliberate anarchy on immigration, they are undermining the four foundations mentioned above in the following ways:

The personal and social mores of hundreds of years are willfully discarded for “evolved” thinking of marriage and family, sexual license and special accommodation to Islamicists that despise everything the West stands for.

Human liberty – including freedom of conscience and worship, assembly and speech and redress to the government – is being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness and incipient totalitarian control over families and individuals. When people of goodwill cannot comment on marriage and morality, critique another religion or worldview (except Christianity) and are told that their most cherished values are subservient to state interests, we no longer have a functioning Constitution.

Economic opportunity is threatened by a militaristic environmentalism rooted in debatable science, excessive regulation and utter disdain for entrepreneurship that does not spout the correct social cliches. It is interesting that class envy is used to increase government control while major corporate donors pay little in taxes and garner contracts with public money.

Finally, the rule of law. Or should we say, lawlessness. Everywhere the current party is in power, crime grows, economies decline and social unrest is at an all-time high. Any suggestion of smaller budget increases or greater efficiencies in social programs are greeted with howls that millions will starve. Immigration reform is a joke. Millions will be pardoned for breaking the law. Instead of deporting felons, enforcing borders and crafting pathways to citizenship that continue our grand values, we are opening the floodgates for cheap labor and cheap votes.

We have a small window of opportunity to change this pathway to oblivion. It will require moral courage, spiritual awakening and wisdom to meet the needs of many types of people. It will also require Congressional and Presidential leadership willing to debate civilly and seriously and forge policies that represent all Americans.

Surreal artists distort reality and provoke reactions with exaggerated forms. The people in power are doing the same with their histrionics and propaganda. Their refusal to debate, stubborness in the face of many concerns and fiat-wielding power speak for themselves. They have a distorted narrative, an exaggerated sense of their own superiority and utter disdain for all that are less “enlightened.” It is time to compel them to get real jobs by voting in women and men of integrity that take the Constitution seriously.

Observations

Observations on a Friday:

The human condition is summed up well by watching preschool children play. One minute they are hugging, laughing and sharing…the next they are crying, pushing and refusing to share.

Federal government leaders are like dieters confronting a box of doughnuts. They know they should walk away after eating one and sharing the box, but they end up eating all of them. Restraint is not an easy virtue.

“Redefining” marriage and family does not change the empirical and intuitive truth that humans are conceived by one man and one woman and children are best served by their biological parents staying together.

Just when I am about to embrace pacifism fully, Iran, North Korea and the Taliban do or say something that awakens a sensibility that we need military force in a fallen world.

But when the noxious odor of crusading and militarism appears, I realize that I am first a citizen of God’s kingdom and must love and pray for my enemies even as nations try to resist evil.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam see the world very differently, even as they share certain monotheistic and moral concepts. Civil discourse with love and respect is a must; pretending that “they worship the same deity” is intellectually and spiritually dishonest.

Academics are a funny lot sometimes. They love to rage against capitalism while teaching in buildings funded by people that were productive and employed others…and, gasp! – made a profit.

Why do so many environmentalists express deep concern for obscure animal species while allowing the elimination of unborn humans? Conversely, good ecology is good economics…if we care for creation, it will care for our posterity.

The local church can be the incubator of spiritual and social transformation. As people connect with God and each other, they become creative and productive and the world is better.

We cannot regulate all risk out of our lives.

Warm homemade bread and butter shared with people you love is profoundly gratifying.

Humility, Please

As President Obama begins his second term, we celebrate the peaceful transitions of power that make the USA the most stable expression of representative government in history. Even in our most contested elections, no militias have seized power and no parties have outlawed dissent and no dictators have risen to eradicate our experiment in self-governance and shared power.

Today is also the commemoration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s life and legacy – a life cut short by a racist’s bullet, but a legacy of compassion and justice we still aspire to as a nation.

With these celebrations undergirding our souls, we must not deceive ourselves that all is well and that life will continue on as it always has. Ominous economic, moral, spiritual and social realities cannot be completely obscured by distracting hot-button issues like gun control (reasonable controls are fine, but assault weapons account for less than 1% of all murders) or more federal largess to ravenously dependent constituencies.

We have to face the debt and deficits. We must recognize our foreign policy weaknesses and shore up our relationships with allies like Israel and Poland. Will we confront family implosion with moral and spiritual solutions, not more programs doomed to fail because children desperately need a daddy and mommy? We must stop ruminating about “de-industializing” America as the rest of the world charges past us in the global economic race. We must cease deceiving ourselves that we can spend our way out of recessions and talk our way to peace with totalitarians.

Mr. President, there is one key to a great second term. You cannot control all events, from nature’s fury to foolish decisions made in other nations. You cannot make a speech and heal the economy or the planet. There is one character trait that will unlock the door to a brighter future for all Americans. What is this key?

Humility. The humility to learn from those outside your ideological bubble. Humble people learn from mistakes, increase accountability change habits. Humility opens hearts and minds among adversaries and increases the chance of successful negotiations. Humility thinks of the good of all for the foreseeable future instead of one’s personal image or legacy. Humility opens the door to divine favor and reconciliation among warring factions. Humility is more powerful than intimidation, because it compels thoughtfulness instead of polemics. Humility knows when to compromise on some practical matters.

Humility is courage wisely managed and power carefully exercised. Humility liberates from the destructiveness of narcissism. Humility opens the door to heretofore undiscovered answers to baffling problems. A humble heart will show respect for all people, thereby garnering openness for new ideas.

Mr. President, allow God’s love to remove the barely concealed contempt you have for your political adversaries. The athletic competitiveness of your youth and the radical fervor of your win-at-all-costs young adulthood community organizing needs tempering as you realize that Paul Ryan is just as smart as you are. If you listen and negotiate with him, you will go down in history as one of a few Presidents with a great second term. In our century, Eisenhower, Reagan and Clinton fostered trust, forged compromises and made the world a better place by swallowing their pride and working with opponents.

The “one thing needed” (paraphrasing Jesus of Nazareth in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 10) for progress is also the most difficult virtue because it requires dismantling of defenses and  construction of character on a foundation of reverence and for God and respect for all people. Humility liberates us from self-imposed demands of personal omniscience and the pressures of perfectionism.

Humility, please, Mr. President.