And by “stupid”, I don’t mean YOU are stupid if you don’t see the whole nationalizing thing, I’m merely riffing off Clinton’s 90s slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid”, hmm, maybe I should edit title, nah, blogs have to be linear the train has left the station, I’m already thinking about the second paragraph!
Panic on wall st about banks nationalizing of late is somewhat of a farce historically, don’t we think? If I could quote from TIME magazine’s Justin Fox:
“You could also say bank nationalization began in 1984 when regulators decided that Continental Illinois, then the nation's seventh largest bank, was too big to fail and put the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in charge of it. Or maybe the crucial moment came in 1933 when Congress decreed that small depositors should be protected from bank failures by the FDIC. Or in 1913 when Congress created the Federal Reserve System to halt banking panics and regulate the money supply…”
Fox goes on to trace the process of nationalizing banks all the way to 1791.
Still, economists and talking heads (on Fox news) are screaming socialism and using the other “S” word (ends with a “weden”) all over the media (Fox news). Wait, don’t capitalists claim that a pure free market will correct itself? Well, then, it IS correcting itself, by turning to a regulated hybrid-socialist model, silly (does “silly” sound nicer?). I don’t understand how one could make the argument that “let markets go, they will correct themselves” and then after this model fails to argue “allow it to correct itself by turning back to the same models that got us here”… that’s absurd! Talking heads across the world (Fox news), let the market correct itself, don’t bash Obama and Geithner for doing what your own model said it would do!
I have to suspect that the fear of allowing banks to nationalize must arise from some antiquated cold-war sentiment that once we socialize we can’t go back; as if once the government becomes 51% shareholder of Citibank the immortalized Lenin will come out of exile and begin his dictatorship over the United Soviet States of America with an iron fist… either that or conservative economists really, REALLY, revile the rancid aroma of Swedish meatballs. You know, there is such a thing as democratic-socialism, silly. Ooh, did anyone see the new “Blorg” coffee table at Ikea, oops, digressing!
To speak in real terms, the answer is greed. I don’t really believe that free market capitalists and republicans truly have (more than an sub-conscious) fear of either of the suspicions stated above; the true answer is that the consuming love of money guides our legislation; Christianity a bystander to the political process was pulled in to get votes.
Search your hearts, Faithful, find me a compelling scriptural argument for the following model: “Make as much money as you want, hurting as many people as necessary in the process, and keep it all for yourself.” Of course, one could argue: “well, I don’t hurt people, and I will give on my own volition,” but I’m speaking of a model for a secular government. Capitalism is run by the masses, not by the church, therefore people will be hurt (and are hurting) and people do keep $$ for themselves (look at our bank’s current lending practice). After searching my heart and searching scripture, I’m ready to make this statement:
Capitalism is counter-biblical.
I won’t nearly go so far as to propose a preposterous statement such as “Socialism is biblical” because that’s a farce. The word of God is not a political document. However, and it’s my desire to argue here, that Socialism promotes the fruits that scripture has called us to: Love for the needy, Generosity, Graciousness, trying to do Good even when it fails, trying to Give even when you are taken advantage of… to name a few. Capitalism promotes the self, and that is counter-biblical.
Despite the fact that the new testament clearly points to a more socialist type of rule, the paradoxical reason that Capitalism prevails under the democratic rule of a mainly Christian population is simple: The richest 2% of the population wants to get richer, they want to control legislation and lobby government to enable them to do so. But how can they do such a thing as only 2% of the population? They have created an infuriating and insidious lie that they are partnered with the church, and have used hot-buttoned non-political issues like abortion and gay-marriage to perpetuate their wealth. (Obama, please tax away).
I believe, although it grieves me, with my eyes wide open, that 99 out of 100 of the richest Americans will be in Hell by the time I’m sipping rootbear floats with Peter chatting about why we hiccup. The Godless wealthy have manipulated politics to their own means and have put their fingers into all constituencies to further their greed. Christians around America, be bold, stop this madness.
If you are still skeptical ask yourself this one question, I will paraphrase from Rick Warren’s sentiment: Is it true that the public sector, the private sector AND the church (all three) are needed to serve justice to the “widows and orphans”? That is, can’t government do what business and the church cannot do, can’t the church do what the other two can’t and so on? If we are truly called to look after the widows and orphans in their distress, as James describes as “PURE RELIGION”, shouldn’t we call on any and all means necessary? Shouldn’t we call on the government to reach the masses in the way that no one else can? Shouldn’t we call on the private sector for its creativity and immense resources? And shouldn’t we call our own lazy, fat, and decaying churches to be the grass-roots human contact that Jesus Christ was to the people?!?!?
Whew, my heart rate is up and my blood pressure is currently at double-quarter-pounder-with-cheese-supersized rates, which means I wrote a good blog☺ Ok, you know it, I know it, I probably said some pretty heretical impassioned stuff on this one. Please, please share your own thoughts. Oh, and btw, I’ve been off for a long time (I know) due to touring and wifing etc. sorry about that and thanks so much for reading.
Oh, here are all the sites from my blog:
Justin Fox on “Nationalizing Banks: What's All the Fuss?”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1881992,00.html
Ikea.com (“Blorg” is not an actual piece of furniture, it just sounds funny… and swedish)
Tax cuts to the wealthy under the bush administration
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/30/americans-income-doubled-bush/
Some fruits of the spirit
Galatians 5:19-26
The difficulty the wealthy have of entering heaven
Matthew 19:24
Rickwarren.com, his work with the peace plan project is inspiring:
http://www.thepeaceplan.com/
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
-James 1:27
The number of calories in a double quarter pounder with cheese: 740
http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/nutrition_facts.html
