Let’s try not to do them
July 15, 2010 (Thursday)
A guy in New Jersey was arrested for shoplifting and let loose on $500 bail. After paying his bail in cash, he was set free. After he left the police station, somebody counted the money and discovered that several $20 bills he had paid were counterfeit. Now, if paying bail with counterfeit money is considered stupid, listen to this: the next day he came back, requesting some of it back, because he had overpaid. He’s in jail today because he can’t make bail.
We all make mistakes and do dumb things, but some things are “dumber” than others.
Now that we are in a recession of gigantic proportions, some squeaky little voices have become louder, questioning the validity of capitalism as an economic system. That’s a dumb thing to do because there is actually only one system that can take its place, and that’s some form of socialism. Such systems have never lasted very long in the great sweep of human history.
Capitalism has its evil side, to be sure. But if we step back and look at the whole picture, we can see that it provides the very best system that is compatible with individual freedom. Because we are free, we can say to any child, “You can become anything you want to become.”
To forsake the economic system that provides opportunity for anyone, no matter whom, to succeed and prosper is dumb, because it trades the real thing for the counterfeit.
Having said that, we must also remember that Americans are not the kind of people who willingly allow others to suffer without doing something to help them. That would be dumb too, for many reasons, not the least of which is that we are accountable to Almighty God for the way we treat each other.