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Letter -- Our economic system is to blame for many ills Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Thank you Agri News. In your editorial of July 9, you did an accurate job of explaining the efforts of many who have tried to improve the lot of "supply and demand" producers. But, I don't agree that it is up to farmers to correct it.
The economic system we use has three levels of opportunity, including gross discrimination against farmers and others who produce new wealth. it's a poverty creator. It does not respect life. It prevents justice for all people. Producers who are trapped in the Supply and Demand tradition did not create our economic/political captivity anymore than the slaves created theirs.
The efforts you described are only aimed at making the results of unequal opportunity less horrendous, leaving the unjust tradition in operation spewing out more bad fruit. The solution is to give all producers equal opportunity.
The majorities in this nation believe the Greatest Commandment's directive to love God above all else and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Together, we are capable of establishing policy that is just for all people. But we aren't united because many seem to think that faith is for our personal lives and that the marketplace is "faith-neutral."
With God, there is no neutral. If you don't honor God by working for the common good, you are working against God.
The dog-eat-dog economic/political/social system we still use violates the Greatest Commandment to its very core. Capitalism's gods -- profits, property, power and prestige -- aren't capable of making anyone happy. Its method of operation, expecting everyone to compete against each other for self-interest, produces increasingly troubling conditions in which to live.
The more rivalry, judgmental hatred, poverty, divisiveness, abortion, fake food, disease, crime, war, and ecological deterioration there is, the more of "their" wealth the pitiful rich people have to "contribute" to get the laws they want in order to accumulate more wealth in the vain hope that more wealth will finally make them happy. That's a contagious, tragic, frustrating, hellish faith!
Love of God and neighbor is contagious, too, and the results are heavenly. But it's more difficult at the start, because it requires discipline. When we work together, we enjoy seeing friendships thriving, trust building, peace growing and hope for the future glowing.
People of God have yet to invent an economic/political/social system based on our God of Love and His Greatest Commandment. A place to start may be to put every producer in the Private Enterprise segment of our economy.
This government-of-the-people would establish, promote and defend justice for all. Its method of operation would be cooperation. Its goal would be the common good. It would insure equal opportunity, but there would have to be variations in pay to account for differences in experience, efficiency, dedication, innovation, difficulty, etc.
As more people of God put our faith into living action, the pathetic blind ones will have a better chance to notice our joy and discover the way to happiness that really works. Than we will all live together happily ever after!
In summary: The few who have bought our nation's policymakers think that happiness comes from competing for self-interest in an unequal opportunity society. It doesn't. It produces hell on earth.
The majority believes in the Greatest Commandment. We could establish common good policy if we humbly demonstrated our love of God and neighbor in all the areas of our lives. But many people of God prevent the switch to common good policy by joining the dog-eat-dog-competition to fight over how to moderate or outlaw the results of dog-eat-dog-competition.
Do you really think it is the responsibility of the few farmers that are left to fix that mess?
-- Lorraine Redig, Winona, MN.
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