Opus 2021-323: On the Road: What Ever Happened to the Puritans?

As we have been traveling across the country we have had a lot of conversations with people who showed up for work.  Everywhere we go we see “help wanted” signs.  It isn’t just at your local fast food place.  Almost every truck that went by us had an invitation to come work for them.  There are plenty of jobs.  What is lacking is the old fashioned Puritan Work Ethic.

We had a great waitress at a Cracker Barrel.  She understood The Ethic.  She was working as hard as she could but it took forever to get our food out of the kitchen.  While people were rocking and gossiping on the porch, half the restaurant was empty.  She said that people didn’t come in to work today.  In the discussion she said they didn’t even bother to call, they just didn’t show up and they don’t get fired because the manager is so desperate for help.  The most often repeated comment we hear in these kind of exchanges is “Why work when the government pays you not to?”

There are solutions but there is no backbone to make them work.  Sooner or later people are going to have to suffer in order to get them moving again.  Proverbs puts it this way,

(Pro 16:26 NAS77) A worker's appetite works for him, For his hunger urges him on.

We as Americans are going to need to harden our sloppy hearts a bit or we will destroy everyone we touch.  We need to do that for theological reasons.  The church and Christians did not go woke this week.  They have been woke for decades.  It started with the desire to reform society using the rules and standards of the God-hating sociologists and psychologists.  It was augmented by a desire to be accepted.  The church stopped talking about sin because that made people uncomfortable.  They draw a big Sharpie line through the doctrine of Original Sin because their big donors didn’t like it.  Over the years they have abandoned the Bible as the measure of truth and in the process abandoned truth itself.  As they “grew” they not only sent the people around them to hell but earned the title Ichabod from God Himself.

We will not recover from the assault of the Proregressives* if we do not tighten our belts, harden our hearts and engage our brains.  Keep in mind that Socialist countries tend to starve and end up murdering anyone they don’t want to feed.

We need to get back to work, all of us.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-036: Who Is Winning the War on Poverty?, part 2 of 2

Millions received a check from the government during the Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal.  They came out stronger and hard working as opposed to the results of The War on Poverty.  Why?

I would suggest it was the requirement to work?  I vaguely remember reading in The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes that for all of their confusion the Roosevelt administration knew that just giving away money would be bad for people.  It would destroy their pride and sense of self worth.  I don’t have the book available right now so I can’t find the quotes but I am pretty sure she took that position. 

Welfare as we know it started for the best of reasons but the Progressives behind it have a flawed view of the nature of human beings.  They assumed that society was the problem and if you could hand out enough money, people would respond by taking what they need and going back to work.  The traditional view of human nature, found in the Bible, is that mankind is wired so that most people will take whatever you give them and still not want to get up to go to work.

We can get people off the dole but it will be painful.  In the words of Solomon,

(Proverbs 16:26 NAS77)  A worker's appetite works for him, For his hunger urges him on.

I am not sure we are willing to pay the price.

Shlaes, Amity.  The Forgotten Man.  New York:  Harper Perennial, 2007.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-161: From Gates to Gore, part 3 of 3

All rich people are not the same.

In a third category you have people like Al Gore.  Al Gore has adopted the mantra of Global Warming and has been using his bully pulpit to push that agenda.  When I first heard about Al Gore he was a somewhat conservative Democrat.  He talked and voted pro-life.  His wife took a public stand against vulgarity in music lyrics.  I saw some value in his life. 

Then he decided he wanted to be president.  As a Democrat the only way that will happen is if you drink the kool-aide and get on board the left wing agenda.  Fortunately for the country he did not make it to president but he has done all he can to make the world green.  He is worried that your car and air conditioning are going to ruin the planet.  He was been a driving force behind the hysteria of Global Warming and how the world is dying.  In the process he has become a wealthy man.  He has used his clout to get laws passed and by a strange coincidence he has started companies that stand to make millions because of the new laws.  Need to buy or sell carbon offsets in order to stay in business?  He is the man to see.  He isn’t in a financial class with Soros but he certainly has the same moral rudder.

It makes a difference how you make it and what you do with it.  Wealth by itself is not evil.  We would all like to be there.  Proverbs puts it well for most of us.

(Proverbs 16:8 NAS77)  Better is a little with righteousness Than great income with injustice.

Be careful about painting with a broad brush.

homo unius libri