Always be prepared to give an answer to
everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. –St Peter
I first became interested in
economics during the Carter Administration. Yes, children, I am that old. The economy was in the toilet
with inflation around 14+% and people were suffering, especially those on fixed
incomes, such as the elderly. Some were advocating the Feds spending more
(increasing the national debt, printing even more bogus-currency) while others,
such as Governor Reagan, were calling for a decrease in federal spending and of
taxes. In all honesty, my sentiments leaned toward Carter, probably because I
had voted for the guy and saw his failures as an indictment of my intelligence
and wisdom. My father suggested that I humble myself and admit that mine was a
foolish vote. My dad: ever the
cheerleader!
During these years, there
were a plethora of books being published on The
Simple Life, suggesting that we live on only the money that was absolutely
necessary for survival, and giving the rest away to the poor. (Actually, many
of the authors called for the government to seize all “excess” money.) The part
of my personality that leaned towards sentimentalism felt that this was
probably the Christian thing to do. However, there was another part of me—the
part that had been influenced by dad constantly telling me, “Your feelings are not
an argument”—left me doubting the assertions of evangelists for The Simple
Life, especially those whom were calling for forced “charity” via confiscatory taxation. There was
just something about the oxymoron of “forced charity” that troubled me.
Around
this same time, I was beginning to work in underdeveloped countries where
people were being beaten to death by poverty; all while their political leaders
were becoming astronomically wealthy. (El
Presidente: “Keep that foreign aid coming!”) In my youthful Idealism, I was
going to help solve this problem, wherever I could, with charity: raise money
here in the US and give it away to the poor in other countries. But it wasn’t
working out. I would give the poor food one month and, upon my return a few
months later, they needed more food.
This
was the milieu in which my studies on macroeconomics, as well as in wealth
creation, began. I was looking for historically verified and validated
principles – The Laws of Economics – that would guide me in my pursuits of
helping the poor escape their poverty; in coaching entrepreneurs and
businesspeople; and in engaging The Powers That Be in dialogues regarding how
best to move societies toward capital expansion, within a moral framework that
supported the dignity owed each individual within that society, whatever their
net worth.
I
recently ran across my original questions from1981, while in Manila,
Philippines, witnessing the fraudulently wealthy President Marcos get his
comeuppance by being voted out of office and replaced by a woman of great
integrity, Ms Corazon Aquino.
Here
are some of those questions
What
is the definition of poverty/who are The Poor? From a historical perspective,
prevailing common sense saw charity as a stopgap measure, not as a lifestyle: How
do we truly help the poor escape poverty and provide for themselves?
If
a major part of the solution to helping underdeveloped nations is foreign aid,
why is it that after billions of dollars of such aid (today that number would
be one trillion dollars), these nations are as poor as they were before
receiving the aid? Are there correlations between the failures of foreign aid
and the failures of US’ social programs?
The
market place: what is the place of civil governments, other than keeping out
force and fraud? Are there correlations between degrees of government
involvement in the market place and the over-all prosperity, or lack thereof,
of a nation?
How
is wealth generated and sustained? What are the historically proven principles
for success in the market place? Further: scanning the histories of other
capitalist or even quasi-capitalistic nations and then comparing these nations
with those that have adopted socialism/communism, what are the direct impacts
of each economic system upon the poor?
[And,
for me, this final question was and is the North Star of my studies]
Do the scriptures cast any
light on the answers to the above questions? I can think of a few things: Don’t steal,
which presupposes private property; honest weights and measures, which
prohibits fraud; we are to work 6 days a week; we are to do all we can (Jesus’
story of the widow’s mite) for the poor, but not for the lazy-poor (Paul);
harming or abusing the poor, widows, and orphans, incurs God’s wrath; and then
all the passages in Proverbs about planning, seeking wisdom, the blessings that
comes with faithfulness and diligence, avoiding get-rich-quick-schemes, and
etc.
Over
the years, other questions were added and answers sought, all while seeking to
see how my answers-solutions worked out (or didn’t) in the real world, both in
serving the poor and in coaching my clients toward success. These questions are
not those of an economist or a professor, but of a man who wishes to provide
for himself, care for the poor, and see our grandchildren and great-grand children
doing the same, in a nation that, once again, sees the symbiotic relationship
between freedom and prosperity.
Copyright, Monte E Wilson,
2015
