GOD vs. Greed

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Fourth, let's look at OUR role as individuals.         For centuries, there was very little that most individuals could do to make any significant changes in the world, unless they happened to be among the very few in positions of authority.         All that could be done for the vast majority of mankind who were powerless to do much about their opporession at the hands of those more powerful than themselves was to give them hope that there was a better life awaiting them on the other side of death.

Fifth, let's look at OUR role as citizens of America.         Ever since the emergence of democracies, people like you and me have NOT been mere powerless cogs in the machinery of world life.  Fifty years ago and more adults were often heard to say in desperation, "You can't fight city hall" (i.e. the government).  And that was true, so long as one fought alone.  But when people learned that "in union there is strength", they proved that you can not only fight, but you can defeat governments all the way from city hall to the White House.         People in power know just how powerful little people can be if and when they get organized.  When you hear people talk of getting organized to fight people in power, you might immediately think of "labor unions".  But there are larger, and more important, unions in the world, namely democracies themselves.  In countries like America, to the extent that they really ARE democracies, the government is a "union" of the entire voting population, organized according to rules they themselves have legislated, to elect people to various offices in order to represent them in the legislation they debate and pass, the judgements they pass down and the administration of the laws passed.  This system doesn't work perfectly -- no system involving human beings does -- , but it makes individuals far more powerful and influential than they would be otherwise.         But it also makes them responsible for the policies and actions of their government.  And that is why Christians who belong to powerful democracies like America have an obligation to support public officials who do a better job of "following the Manufacturer's Instructions" and to oppose those who don't.  See our www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/Democrats for good historical examples of what we mean.

{ The following Editorial was published in the Christmas 2001 issue of the New York Times.  Although George Bush has since replaced Paul O'Neill with a different Treasury Secretary, the views of the new one don't appear to differ much from those of Mr. O'Neill : }

The Scrooge Syndrome December 25, 2001 By PAUL KRUGMAN         "Bah, humbug!" cried the U.S. treasury secretary.  O.K., Paul O'Neill didn't actually say "Bah."  But last week he contemptuously dismissed proposals for increased aid to poor nations.  And his justification - that he "would like to see evidence of what works before making new commitments" - was pure humbug.         For the truth is that we already know what works.  Nobody expects foreign aid to perform miracles, to turn Mozambique into Sweden overnight.  But more modest goals, such as saving millions of people a year from diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, are quite reachable, for quite modest sums of money.         That is the message of a commission report just released by the World Health Organization, which calls on advanced countries to provide resources for a plan to "scale up the access of the world's poor to essential health services." The program would provide very basic items that many poor nations simply cannot afford: antibiotics to treat tuberculosis, insecticide-treated nets to control malaria, and so on.  The price tag would be about 0.1 percent of advanced countries' income.  The payoff would be at least eight million lives each year.         This is not starry-eyed idealism.  The report quotes Jeffrey Sachs, the Harvard professor who headed the commission: "I can be 'realistic' and `cynical' with the best of them - giving all the reasons why things are too hard to change."  Mr. Sachs knows that it will be hard to persuade advanced countries to come up with the money - and that the United States, in particular, is likely to be highly unreceptive.  But this is one of those cases in which leadership could make a tremendous difference.         Right now, the United States is the Scrooge of the Western world - the least generous rich nation on the planet.  One of the tables in that W.H.O. report shows the share of G.N.P. given in foreign aid by advanced countries; the United States ranks dead last, well behind far poorer countries such as Portugal and Greece.  The sums proposed by the W.H.O. would double our foreign aid budget, not because those sums

are large, but because we start from so low a base - about a dime a day for each U.S. citizen.         Still, doubling our foreign aid budget sounds like an impossible dream.  But is it?  We may be a Scrooge nation, but we are not a nation of Scrooges.  Not only are Americans often generous as individuals, they are - without knowing it - apparently willing to give substantially more foreign aid than the nation actually does.  When asked how much of the federal budget should be devoted to foreign aid, Americans typically come up with a number around 10 percent - about 20 times what we currently spend.         Voters are, however, misinformed: they think that the share of foreign aid in federal spending should be cut to 10 percent.  And they wonder why foreigners don't show more gratitude for all the money we give them.  Americans are, in other words, living in the past: the Marshall Plan ended more than 50 years ago, but they haven't noticed.         The point is that we like to think of ourselves as generous.  This suggests that a U.S. administration that really wanted to follow the W.H.O. report's recommendations would not find it hard to build political support.  All it would have to do is use the bully pulpit to inform the public of the difference between America's generous self-image and the less attractive reality.         Why bother?  You might say that the United States has a selfish interest in helping the world's poor.  The Sachs commission argues that there would be large collateral benefits from improved health care in the world's poorest nations.  Disease, it argues, is a major barrier to economic growth, and economic growth in developing countries would make the world as a whole a richer and safer place.         You might also say that reducing the disconnect between America's words and its deeds would give us a better claim to the moral leadership we think we deserve.         But the key argument here is surely a moral one.  A sum of money that Americans would hardly notice, a dime a day for the average citizen, would quite literally save the lives of millions.  Can we really say to ourselves, this Christmas Day, that this gift is not worth giving?

What Some of our Wiser Presidents have said about the Dangers Wealth Pose to our Nation : Democratic Pres. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1816 :         "I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws our country." and on another occasion :         "This country is headed toward a single and splendid government of an aristocracy founded on banking institutions and monied incorporations and if this tendency continues it will be the end of freedom and democracy, the few will be ruling and riding over the plundered plowman and the beggar." and on another occasion :         "I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies". and on another occasion :         "Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to . . .  the general prey of the rich on the poor" Republican Pres. Abraham Lincoln added :         "These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people."   (in the Illinois Legislature, January 1837) Republican Pres. Theodore Roosevelt added :         "There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains.  To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done." - Democratic Pres. Woodrow Wilson added:         � am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.� Democratic Pres. Franklin D Roosevelt added :         "The liberty of a democracy is not safe, if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself.  That, in its essence, is Fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power." Republican Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower added :         " Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket signifies, in the final sense,  a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, from those who are cold and are not clothed.  The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." Democratic Pres. William Jefferson Clinton added:         "We have to make a world where there are far fewer terrorists, where there are fewer potential terrorists and more partners. . .  And that responsibility falls primarily upon the wealthy nations to spread the benefits and shrink the burdens. . .         It will cost money, but it's a lot cheaper than going to war.  We will spend far more to pick up the pieces of destroyed lands and shattered lives if we do not do these things. . .  We will never fight a conflict for less than a billion dollars a month..  But for 12 billion dollars a year, they could pay America's share of these initiatives of trade and against poverty and disease and have money left over".         The U.N. calculates that the whole of the world population's basic needs for food, drinking water, education and medical care could be covered by a levy of less than 4 % on the accumulated wealth of the 225 largest fortunes. To satisfy all the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only less than the United States and the European Union spend each year on perfume.         I am absolutely confident that we have the knowledge and the means to make the 21st century the most peaceful, prosperous, interesting time in all human history.  The question is whether we have the wisdom and the will." ( BBC's Richard Dimbleby Lecture 2001) "The world's" best point the way On the 100th anniversary of the Nobel prize, 100 Nobel laureates warned that our security hangs on environmental and social reform : Toronto Globe and Mail Friday, December 7, 2001 � Print Edition, Page A21         " The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed.  Of these poor and disenfranchised, the majority live a marginal existence in equatorial climates.  Global warming, not of their making but originating with the wealthy few, will affect their fragile ecologies most.  Their situation will be desperate and manifestly unjust.         It cannot be expected, therefore, that in all cases they will be content to await the beneficence of the rich.  If then we permit the devastating power of modern weaponry to spread through this combustible human landscape, we invite a conflagration that can engulf both rich and poor.  The only hope for the future lies in co-operative international action, legitimized by democracy.         It is time to turn our backs on the unilateral search for security, in which we seek to shelter behind walls.  Instead, we must persist in the quest for united action to counter both global warming and a weaponized world.  These twin goals will constitute vital components of stability as we move toward the wider degree of social justice that alone gives hope of peace.         Some of the needed legal instruments are already at hand, such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Convention on Climate Change, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.  As concerned citizens, we urge all governments to commit to these goals that constitute steps on the way to replacement of war by law.         To survive in the world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a new way.  As never before, the future of each depends on the good of all." THE 100 Nobel laureates signatories :         " In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell         "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. . .  The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." -- Martin Luther King, Jr. :         "When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable." -- Thomas Merton  ( Strength To Love, 1963 )         "We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." -- Louis Brandeis As the Republican political writer and commentator, Kevin Phillips has pointed out,         "The federal inheritance tax that conservatives are trying to scuttle, principally on behalf of the 300,000 families with assets greater than $5 million, was imposed by wartime Republican presidents Lincoln and McKinley and urged for peacetime by Theodore Roosevelt." . . . In 1953, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower declined to support GOP congressional legislation to reduce the top federal income tax rate of 91 percent, and on leaving office in 1961, he warned against the rise of the military--industrial complex."         "The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World.  No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity -- much less dissent." -- Gore Vidal         "Who are the oppressors? The few: the king, the capitalist and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth, the workers..." -- Mark Twain         "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." -- South-African Episcopal Archbishop Desmond Tutu         "The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them.  That is the essence of inhumanity." -- George Bernard Shaw : On the other hand, "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." The Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. In his Annual Message to Congress, on December 3, 1861, Republican President Abraham Lincoln said :         "There is one point, with its connexions, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention.  It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above labor, in the structure of government.         It is assumed that labor is available only in connexion with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it, induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers, or what we call slaves. And further it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer, is fixed in that condition for life.         Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless.         Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.         Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation.         A few men own capital, and with that avoid labor themselves, and, with their capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them.         A large majority belong to neither class -- neither work for others, nor have others working for them. In most of the southern states, a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor masters; while in the northern a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men with their families -- wives, sons and daughters -- work for themselves, on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other." Reference: Roy P. Basler, Abraham Lincoln : His Speeches and Writings, Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company, 3rd printing, 1946, pp. 633-634         Before you are impressed by the fact that the top 5% of Americans as a group pays 50% of our nation's income taxes, stop to reflect on the fact that the same top 5% are reaping 80% of the nation's income!  The last thing the wealthiest country on earth needs to do is to give tax money back to those who already have more than they will ever need, instead of using that money to relieve the suffering of the needy ! Some insights of the wealthy themselves : An unknown billionaire once said,         "If you think money can make you happy, you have never had much of it."         Even among the rich there are some who recognize the wisdom of taxing those with great wealth in order to help those most unfairly treated in our society.  Andrew Carnegie was one of the richest people of his time and yet after having given away much of his wealth himself, explained toward the end of his life that (in effect) "any man who dies wealthy is a failure".  If you are not already aware of this piece, written by one of the mighty "robber barrons" , you will be amazed by Andrew Carnegie's essay, "The Gospel of Wealth".         "Money is like manure.  If you spread it around, it does a lot of good, but if you pile it up in one place, it stinks like hell." -- Clint W. Murchison , Texas financier Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest men of all time, plans to leave his own children far less than the Republicans want them to have, namely a tiny portion of his wealth ( a few million each).   And his father, Bill Gates, Sr. is one of the leaders of "Responsible Wealth", a group organizing as many rich people as possible to fight attempts by the Republican Party to lower the taxes on rich people.         Please take a detour now to a site where you can review and sign a very important petition being promoted by that great organization, and then plan to come back to this site afterwards . . . a Petition by many Wealthy, as well as other Americans, to restore our progressive Estate Tax. You can click here to sign and/or promote a petition to urge our leaders to work harder to relieve hunger at least in America .         As for world poverty, we need to rid ourselves of the illusion that developed countries like ours are the great benefactors of the poorer countries of the world.  Although we may give some direct assistance to poor nations, "Rich countries give their farmers $320 billion in handouts, more than six times the amount they give to poor countries as aid."  And those subsidies not only enable our farmers to undersell our competitors in developed countries.  The also prevent poorer countries from being able to sell their products for a reasonable profit.  See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/3102108.stm and this follow-up:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/3104584.stm.         When discussing Income and / or Taxes in America, it helps to have some good basic data on the topic, like : www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/about/USincome.html

The LAST Thing America Needs Now is the Abolition or Reduction of Taxation on the Estates and Income of the  $uper-rich ! Christ's Followers shouldn't just join those opposing such moves. They should be leadingthem! The Man In Black ( Johnny Cash ) Well, you wonder why I always dress in black, Why you never see bright colors on my back, And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone. Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on. I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he's a victim of the times. I wear the black for those who never read, Or listened to the words that Jesus said, About the road to happiness through love and charity, Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me. Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose, In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes, But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back, Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black. I wear it for the sick and lonely old, For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold, I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been, Each week we lose a hundred fine young men. And, I wear it for the thousands who have died, Believen' that the Lord was on their side, I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died, Believen' that we all were on their side. Well, there's things that never will be right I know, And things need changin' everywhere you go, But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right, You'll never see me wear a suit of white. Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day, And tell the world that everything's OK, But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back, 'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.

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