SOME THOMAS SOWELL & FRIEDMAN GOES A LONG WAY—CHRISTIAN ECONOMICS VERSUS THE EVIL WAY

       As many of you know I am a huge fan of the economic teachings of Friedman and Sowell instead of the Frankfurt School liberal economic thought and taught in today’s progressive left education system at every level.  People always ask me why?  I find their teachings to be moral, just, and Scripturally sound.  The Bible speaks of hard work, endurance, and using the gifts God has given us to excel in this life.  I have always felt the same about Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas—constructionalist on their Constitutional interpretations without bias and never activist like we see at every court level today because of judges that prefer to rule on emotion rather than law written by elected officials.  But, tonight I want to talk about Thomas Sowell as there is MUCH Biblical virtue in his teachings, commentary, and published brilliance.

       Sowell has built his theories on what has, can, and will actually happen in culture and economics without bias.  Like Friedman, there is no emotional wish jar, but actual truth.  My intentions are to present some of Sowell’s argument as many are too slothful to read (or comprehend—thanks public education) a book by a noted author.

       Sowell noted in his writings five logical lessons that the progressive, communist/socialist public school and universities refuse to teach and the church is leaning toward these principles but in the wrong direction.

1. Poverty is not evidence of injustice.

2. There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

3. Decision makers must face consequences.

4. It is not greed to keep what you earn.

5. Don’t replace what works with something that sounds good.

How does Sowell explain all of this?  Simply, we refuse to ask the right questions.  Sowell builds his premises, truth, and logic off of what REALLY happens and not on our emotional wishes.  For example: “There’s no explanation needed for poverty.  The species began in poverty.  So, what are you really need to know is what are the things that enable some countries, and some groups within countries, to be prosperous.”  This is from Sowell’s “Wealth, Poverty, and Politics.”  Like the DSA and progressive left, these angry trust fund kids play a fairy tale game with the rhetoric that sways the uneducated masses.  In their fairy tale with no struggle, no scarcity, a “simple” collective that supplies for all—of course all run by the political  financially elite and trust fund commies who retain power and prestige.  When this fantasy fails, which it will, then they preach that it is the government’s duty (run by them instead of the people) to sustain them.  Logically, we would ask what happens when the money runs out?  Kind of like the lazy and victim seemingly incapable worms living off of the social security that I have paid into my entire life.  I agree with Sowell, I am accountable and responsible for me and my family—NOT yours nor is the government.  If you marvel at poverty, it requires you to hunt for a villain and find someone to blame as that person is the self-diagnosed victim.  However, if you marvel at prosperity, you will copy what works.  No one I know on the planet mirrors the failure in the workplace but those who achieve success.

       Sowell’s second lesson is about free choice.  He wrote: “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.”  So, pick your poison, prosperity for you and your family or some trade off for your DEI children.  Remember the logic and science of cause and effect?  When you go “all in” on your three-of-a-kind and the next person has a low-card full house…well, you chose.  Logic tells me that the only thing you get to really choose are your sacrifices, work hard in the interim, and stand by for the solutions that life offers.  When you make a choice, you will personally expend spiritual, physical, moral, and mental value that could have gone to a better choice.  Meanwhile, every benefit that you see taken out of your paycheck that YOU worked for goes somewhere or to someone you may not agree with.

       Sowell’s third lesson really gets me—leaders pay no price.  He wrote in “Applied Economics:” “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”  That statement positively includes politicians and the clergy.  Freak shows stand in the pulpit each service spouting that there are other ways to God than Jesus, there is no hell, and everyone collects their child soccer trophy on the way to Heaven.  Neat.  The COVID facemasks, 6-feet of separation, school closures, and lockdowns are a classic example of this stupidity.  Has any church held their pastor responsible for his cowardice from the pulpit?  All of the officials failed upwards while holding the masses down.  Consequence is the most valuable professor, sadly selected leaders never sit in the class or pass the test.  When is the last time we purged our elected offices of people who became millionaires while in office?

       Sowell’s fourth lesson is nothing but logic.  He wrote in “Barbarians Inside the Gates:” “I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money that you have earned, but not greed to take someone else’s money.”  The shift of power and control is eternal between the taker and the giver.  These takers use a new vocabulary of fairness and equality and is probably the most verbal and efficient tool for something illogical.

       Sowell’s fifth point stating that something that sounds good doesn’t always work.  Sowell wrote in “The Vision of the Annointed” wrote: “Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”  I would add that there is a steaming compost of “good ideas” from the progressive political left and the progressive church that has no staying power, they won’t gain you anything personally or spiritually.  As I always say, emotions are NEVER fact.  What sounds good, like everyone is going to Heaven and there is no hell is a good feeling and emotion.  What works, like “straight and narrow is the way and few there be that find it,” or “no man cometh to the Father but by me” are facts from Jesus.  The problem is that we are tolerant enough to allow emotions into the argument when it should never have a seat at the table of debate.  I remind myself that David didn’t pray over the sinful, idol-worshipping Goliath…he hit him in the head with a rock.  Perhaps church goers need a little rattle.

       So for all of my seriously mentally slow smooth-brained friends, who truly believe that wealth, success, and merit should be redistributed, that success should not based off of work ethic and study is an injustice, and that greed is only in a capitalist society.  Let me ask you, isn’t China, Russia, and any other form of governance or society ruled by greed?  Don’t kid yourself.  I think Aleksandr Solzhenitysn said it best: “The line dividing good and evil runs directly through every human heart.”  This dividing line does not run between classes and states.

       Sowell tag teams on Friedman’s premise that there are two visions and assumptions of human nature that shape society.  Constrained and unconstrained.  Constrained, that is closely equated with classical liberalism and conservativism, is viewing human nature as being fixed, self-interested, and morally limited.  Humans are flawed by nature.  In this view, society cannot improve people, it can only manage them through systems, rules, etc., to channel flawed humanity toward productive ends.

       The unconstrained vision holds that humans are malleable creatures, held by Communism, Socialism, and progressive liberals.  This vision hold that society does not possess the moral aptitude to problem solve and it requires the government to make the decisions for the masses.  This can only be done by approved experts with the pedigree to reshape mankind from top down.

       You have to realize that the greatest creations of civilization did not come from government bureaus, or really government itself.  An interesting author, Devon Eriksen makes a great point: “…and that is not because of America’s great supply of geniuses.  It is because you can build here, without getting beaten to death with rocks for witchcraft (or other sins in Islam).  Without bribing eleventy-billion bureaucrats.  Without being shut out of every opportunity because they have be given to the Glorious Leader’s third cousin.  Without being killed by the pre-existing elites simply so they can take your stuff.”

       In Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov,” Jesus returns to earth during the Catholic inquisition and within a matter of days is arrested and brought before the great inquisitor.  The inquisitor explains to Jesus that the church has spent 15 centuries trying to correct Jesus’ “mistakes.”  Jesus offers mankind freedom, but the inquisitor believes that mankind is too stupid and weak to carry that burden of responsibility.  He offers Jesus bread and a clean conference for His confession in exchange for Jesus’ servitude to the inquisitor.  The inquisitor, much like the bureaucrat or central planner views himself not as the villain, but as merciful.  Just like every government program and welfare, the government inquisitor believes that every person would rather have food, government healthcare, and housing paid for by the free people who use wisdom and self-governance.

       Herein lies the problem for both governance and religion.  People value comfort over freedom, and the people who are supposed to offer you safety and wisdom in exchange for servitude really aren’t the people who should wield such power.