We Do Not Have A Capitalist System

Why Is Manufacturing Going Overseas?

The reason that manufacturing is going overseas is not labour, it is the government. Here is an example, 

Good Television

The way that media slants its coverage is rather amazing. If you watch network news uncritically, you are being played.

In the Tea Party movement, if you have 100 protestor signs, which one will be on the news? It will either be the one that is misspelled, the one that shows Obama as the Joker, or the one by the local Nazi crazy. This may not be bias so much as "good television.”

This same kind of thing goes on with the Occupy movement. You cannot trust the images or the interviews. If the nightly news producer has two clips—one of a crazy defecating on the flag, or one of a person with a cogent argument—the crazy is going to get the spot. This may be bias, or just more "good television.”

Readers of this blog will not be surprised that I am no fan of Nancy Pelosi. Yet I still see news bias against her. I have cable news right now because I am in Missouri, and I have satellite there until my contract expires. Twice I have seen Nancy Pelosi accused of saying, "We need to pass the bill to find out what's in it." She is referring to the Obama Health care bill. 

Yes you can see where she said this, in an out of context clip. When she is viewed in context she is saying something different. Pelosi is saying that once the public knows what is in the bill, they will support it. I think she was wrong on this, but she is not a crazy woman. (I will show a clip tomorrow of Pelosi, where she says that Boeing should fire the workers in S. Carolina, realizes that is not what she meant, and corrects it with the change that she wants them to be Union workers. I am not as confident in the veracity of the clip in terms of editing as I was when I put it in my blog queue. But I will leave it there as it does illustrate one point I wanted to make, the Union template.)

The Oakland Police has estimated that there are 100 people at the Occupy Oakland protest that are violent, out of an estimated 10,000 protesters.

So I will leave you with a question. If a news producer has a clip of people throwing rocks (I do wonder who these people really are, are they planted?), or a video of the Occupy protesters locking arms to prevent property damage, which is most likely to be aired-which is "good television”?

Principle of the Second Tithe

As we saw in the last installment of this series, the second tithe, the tithe associated with festival observance, is fined tuned to provide enough food to celebrate the festivals of Leviticus 23. There would be a little extra for most people living in ancient Israel, which would make the festival celebratory, which is another principle we will talk about before this series ends. 

We cannot really directly port over the second tithe to our modern situation. There have been attempts to do this but they fail. The main reason these attempts fail is that the tithe in Ancient Israel was only agricultural. There was no tithe on pottery making for example. So if one wishes to adjust the tithe to our modern situation, I have no objection, but making the tithe apply to income is already an adjustment, so why not make other adjustments to make it fit our situation better?

Spending 10% of one’s budget on festival observance sounds about right when one is attending three pilgrimage festivals. They are expensive.  It should also be considered that many of those celebrating these festivals do not observe Christmas. I do not. The average Christmas spending in America is $500 per person. The average spending for a family vacation is $1,600.  (These figures were from a quick google search.) Combining these two items into festival observance certainly means less of a burden than one would think when looking at festival observance for the first time. 

(Note that the most logical date for the birth of Jesus is the Feast of Tabernacles. Many take note of his birth during that festival. The festival site I attended sang some “Christmas songs” during services.) 

Those that do observe the festivals of pilgrimage usually limit their pilgrimage to one time a year—at the Feast of Tabernacles. So in that situation saving a full 10% of one’s budget seems excessive. I had one person admit to me years ago that they wasted money in their festival observance because they had extra, since they saved a full 10% of their income for the fall festival. I did not say anything as I was young and new to festival observance, but it did not seem right to me then, nor does it now. 

What I am advocating is that one set one’s feast expenditures based on a combination of income and the number of pilgrimage feasts one attends. For some this might mean saving 10%, for others a lesser amount. But the point of the tithe is not so much an exact percentage, but that one should plan to make sure that one can attend the festivals. Do the Best You Can. 

If you wish to follow the biblical pattern of 10% rigorously I have no objection. But if you do, the question may come up of what to do with the excess money. Rather than spend the money frivolously, I suggest a different approach and one that I will be talking about in my next installment on the festivals next week—The Principle of Community. 

Money For Nothing

I suggest that our national anthem be replaced with the Dire Straits song "Money For Nothing." It seems to fit our national desires better than claiming to be the land of the free. Instead, because of our desire for something for nothing, we will become the land of the fee.

The Roman Empire took hundreds of years to ultimately fall. America has been an Empire for at least 100 years, so we may go on for some time. I have been predicting 5 to 8 years untill we have a crisis more severe than 2008—a few more years if the recovery next year is stronger than I think. I am certainly no economic expert. I can only look at my situation and extrapolate. Extrapolation of our current spending issues leaves little doubt that an even bigger crisis is coming relatively soon.

There were gasps in the audience when Michelle Bachman recently suggested a cut of 40% of government expenditures. Instead there should have been applause. I was talking to my son Dmitry about politics and said our politicians were either liars, or idiots who think that 2+2=6. The fact that Republicans think 2+2=5 is not particularly comforting.

I am guardedly pessimistic because I expect budget cuts when a crisis forces it. Waiting until then makes the coming crisis worse and the cuts greater.  Every few years we have "kicked the can down the road." Is there a cliff coming? At the very least we are headed for a ditch. Fasten your seat belt.