Should businesses be privately owned?
“Jesus buying and selling!” said Wingfold to himself. “And why not? Did Jesus make chairs and tables, or boats perhaps, which the people of Nazareth wanted, without any admixture of trade in the matter? Was there no transaction? No passing of money between hands? Did they not pay his father for them? Was his Father’s way of keeping things going in the world, too vile for the hands of him whose being was delight in the will of that Father? No; there must be a way of handling money that is noble...” (Taken from Thomas Wingfold, Curate by George MacDonald, 1824-1905)
“Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership.” (Wikipedia, 11 April, 2024, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism)
We were made for community. We are communal beings. But community cannot be forced upon us. Sharing time together or sharing material things must be voluntary. If we are forced to share, we will look for ways to have, keep, or get more than others. If we are forced to share the load, we will look for ways to do less work. That’s one reason why there is—and has always been—so much corruption in communist countries. (For some striking examples from Soviet Russia see Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics). The failure of communism is the failure to understand human nature. In order for a people to become prosperous they must believe that hard work and innovation will make them and their families better off.
“Funny how those who push equality always want to be "equal" with those who live in Calabasas or Malibu, has a trophy wife and a Bentley but never equal with those who take the bus and live in a one bedroom apartment in Boyle Heights or Compton.” — Jeff Ho
Many years ago two groups of Christians in America decided to share everything in common. Instead of prospering, many of them starved. The experiments failed because of people’s sense of fairness (see America’s Socialist Origins and Equality of Input vs Equality of Outcome | Jonathan Haidt).
If you work hard and have nothing to show for it, while others who could work hard but are hardly working at all are in the exact situation as you, why bother working hard to support them? Why should they live off your labour? It’s one thing to voluntarily share what you have earned with someone who cannot work; it’s another thing altogether to be forced to work harder to support someone who is taking advantage of you. To be truly generous you must first have something to give. Generosity depends upon ownership. If you own nothing, you can give nothing. If you have very little and you feel cheated, you will become hard-hearted.
"The century-old question — Does any given 'scheme of help...make demands on men to give themselves to their brethren?' — is still the right one to ask.
"Each of us needs to ask that question not in the abstract, but personally. We need to ask ourselves: Are we offering not coerced silver, but our lives? If we talk of crisis pregnancies, are we actually willing to provide a home to a pregnant young woman? If we talk of abandoned children, are we actually willing to adopt a child? Most of our twentieth-century schemes, based on having someone else take action, are proven failures. It's time to learn from the warm hearts and hard heads of earlier times, and to bring that understanding into our own lives" (Marvin Olasky, The Tragedy of American Compassion, Washington D.C. , Regency Gateway, 1992, pp. 232-233).
“But,” you might say, “Jesus commanded us to give to those who ask.” Yes, he commanded us to even love our enemies. But loving one’s enemies means carefully considering what you think is the best thing for your enemy and helping to make that happen. Loving your enemy does not mean giving him whatever he wants. God does not always give us what we want because he loves us.
“If God were not only to hear our prayers, as he does ever and always, but to answer them as we want them answered, he would not be God our Saviour but the ministering genius of our destruction.” ~ George MacDonald
Sometimes loving someone means opposing them. We must not forget that Jesus loved the pharisees. That’s why they hated him. Love is generous, but it is never weak.*
That's why Paul wrote:
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” (2 Thess 3:10)
Paul wrote that because he cared about those who were unwilling to work. Character is more important than comfort.
Higher taxes and excessive red tape lead to an increase in family break down and higher rates of crime. As Sweden began to discover (and is still discovering), too many government programs and services hampers the economy and leads to a slow but sure economic collapse.
What kind of people does a socialist state create?
And what kind of people does a socialist state attract? (Sweden is being bombed almost every week.)
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
In the long run, does more government welfare result in more poverty or less poverty?
Is it better to be poor in a poor country or a wealthy country?
“And what about churches, charities, and the generosity of individuals? “But,” you might object, “churches and charities would not be able to cope if we reduce unemployment benefits.” That would all depend on how high the minimum wage was. See here.
Is it better to have more kind and generous people? Or more government programs?
What kind of society does a socialist government create? (See The Tyranny of Socialism.)
The National Socialist German Workers Party
* God accepts us, but that does not mean he approves of everything we do.