Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Corrupt Economics and Envy

"The original federal minimum wage laws were supported by northern textile manufacturers who wanted protection from the competition of southern manufacturers benefiting from low cost labor. From the avidity with which businessmen seek to avoid having competitors, we can infer that competition is at least as distasteful to capitalists as it is to socialists. They may praise it on the lecute tour, but when it comes to questions of public policy, they seem to believe that it works well only in other industries." - Schlossberg, p112, Idols for Destruction.

In his chapter, "Idols of Mammon", Schlossberg gives multiple examples of the power of envy that is at work in our economic and political system. However, he is quick also to note that the problem is not with "them" - the ones in the system or the system itself. The American culture, and the Americans that live in it, love the benefits of the system even at the expense of the costs of socialistic regimes placed over them.

"Resistance has always been possible...and with enough participants, may be effective. It is even more clear that the citizens in democracies cannot be absolved from the crimes and stupidities of their leaders. There is no refuge in the cry that the system is responsible." - p106.

And so we witness this summer the inability of the conservatives or the liberals in Congress to honestly handle our debt crisis. Capitalism and the free market systems are not losing to liberal politicians but to the envy of the people. The rare jewel of Christian contentment (Burroughs), and not more Republicans in the Senate or White House, is the only answer.

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