The REAL Fiscal Cliff
I do have a Facebook page but visit it quite infrequently. Today I did, and a wall post from a terrific friend included one of those quite idiotic but purportedly inspirational notions, this one going something like this, from some motivational speaker at a "You're Really Special"-type seminar that probably cost attendees $800 for the weekend.
"See this $20 bill? How many of you want it? [Hands up everywhere.] Okay, what if I crinkled it up, like this? How many now? [Same number of hands up.] Okay, what if I stepped on it and squished it into the ground, like this? How many now? [Same number.] See! No matter what awful thing happens to the $20 bill, it still retains its value. So, listen, YOU ARE VALUED! No matter how much stuff you have to take in life, tough it out because you have value even through all of it!"
The few comments there were along the lines of "Bravo! Great words!" and "I must remember that all the time! Thanks!"
What wasn't added was something I share with my Economics students when I do the "How Valuable is This or That" thing. It is along the lines of this. "What if I took the $20 bill and put it in the slimiest dog poop in the filthiest sewage dump?" I guarantee you many hands would go down. "What if I specially coated it then dipped it in a thick sulfuric acid substance so that the bill stays intact but corrodes anything touching it including the skin of anyone who handles it?" I'd bet every hand would go down. There are hundreds of different things that could happen to the actual bill itself that would indeed make it valueless.
Never mind that the issuer of the bill could debase it through its monetary practices so even if nothing physically happened to it it'd still be made worthless.
My point is that everyone is concerned about the real value of things, and someone just saying something -- or someone -- is valuable doesn't make it so.
What motivates me to blog right now is watching all major companies of some stripe dropping tons of cash into their owners' laps in dividends payments to avoid the consequences of increased taxes should the country fall off the "fiscal cliff" soon. Recently I noted that Whole Foods Market was the latest one to do this.
Hmm. Whole Foods Market, one of those places that advertises how socially conscious it is with the environment and worker's rights and all the rest of it. Now don't get me wrong, I shop at Whole Foods. I like eating healthy. I'm also wholly (so to speak) for actively nurturing the environment and protecting worker's rights.
But the way the Jesuit-instructed institutions that brainwash most of American tell us is the only way we can do all that is by following the Radical Selfist idea that there is no God (essentially -- really, most who say they into him are just speaking of a fairy tale god who has no real impact on their lives), that we are just advanced apes who should really get into the science of things, and that if we tried really hard to enlighten everyone with really enlightened things we'd have the spiffy world we all really want.
The real fiscal cliff is that there are so few who fully trust in Jesus Christ who is the Source of all things. The real fiscal cliff is that so many are still wallowing in their sin and working valiantly as all get-out to find THE WAY TO VALUE THEMSELVES in spite of this harrowing truth.
Let's all listen to sweet-sounding inspirational speakers who tell us crap disguised as pithy truths. Let's all pay our taxes so the government racket won't break our legs but when they ask for too much let's wiggle our way out of it someway.
All we've been hearing and are going to hear for some time is how ominous the fiscal cliff is. But really. If you continue to pay huge chunks of your productive capacity in tribute to Caesar and at the same time expect to get gobs and gobs and gobs of Christmas presents from him long long long after the holidays, then your fall off the cliff will be especially brutal. And all I see is bazillions of folks right now running to leap off that cliff.
On the other hand should you switch over to the One who loves you, who knows love, who does love, who is love, who'd died to love, who loves you, who will have you then love others with others so the wealth of your production manifests itself in authentic joy and rapturous peace and sowing vast abundance of both material and spiritual things into the lives of everyone...
Wow.
That there'd be really pretty-good sized groups of people who are Christ's and not Caesar's...
There'd be no cliff.
Just the Kingdom.
Can you imagine? Bazillions instead running at break-neck speed
To the Kingdom?
I keep praying...
_
"See this $20 bill? How many of you want it? [Hands up everywhere.] Okay, what if I crinkled it up, like this? How many now? [Same number of hands up.] Okay, what if I stepped on it and squished it into the ground, like this? How many now? [Same number.] See! No matter what awful thing happens to the $20 bill, it still retains its value. So, listen, YOU ARE VALUED! No matter how much stuff you have to take in life, tough it out because you have value even through all of it!"
The few comments there were along the lines of "Bravo! Great words!" and "I must remember that all the time! Thanks!"
What wasn't added was something I share with my Economics students when I do the "How Valuable is This or That" thing. It is along the lines of this. "What if I took the $20 bill and put it in the slimiest dog poop in the filthiest sewage dump?" I guarantee you many hands would go down. "What if I specially coated it then dipped it in a thick sulfuric acid substance so that the bill stays intact but corrodes anything touching it including the skin of anyone who handles it?" I'd bet every hand would go down. There are hundreds of different things that could happen to the actual bill itself that would indeed make it valueless.
Never mind that the issuer of the bill could debase it through its monetary practices so even if nothing physically happened to it it'd still be made worthless.
My point is that everyone is concerned about the real value of things, and someone just saying something -- or someone -- is valuable doesn't make it so.
What motivates me to blog right now is watching all major companies of some stripe dropping tons of cash into their owners' laps in dividends payments to avoid the consequences of increased taxes should the country fall off the "fiscal cliff" soon. Recently I noted that Whole Foods Market was the latest one to do this.
Hmm. Whole Foods Market, one of those places that advertises how socially conscious it is with the environment and worker's rights and all the rest of it. Now don't get me wrong, I shop at Whole Foods. I like eating healthy. I'm also wholly (so to speak) for actively nurturing the environment and protecting worker's rights.
But the way the Jesuit-instructed institutions that brainwash most of American tell us is the only way we can do all that is by following the Radical Selfist idea that there is no God (essentially -- really, most who say they into him are just speaking of a fairy tale god who has no real impact on their lives), that we are just advanced apes who should really get into the science of things, and that if we tried really hard to enlighten everyone with really enlightened things we'd have the spiffy world we all really want.
The real fiscal cliff is that there are so few who fully trust in Jesus Christ who is the Source of all things. The real fiscal cliff is that so many are still wallowing in their sin and working valiantly as all get-out to find THE WAY TO VALUE THEMSELVES in spite of this harrowing truth.
Let's all listen to sweet-sounding inspirational speakers who tell us crap disguised as pithy truths. Let's all pay our taxes so the government racket won't break our legs but when they ask for too much let's wiggle our way out of it someway.
All we've been hearing and are going to hear for some time is how ominous the fiscal cliff is. But really. If you continue to pay huge chunks of your productive capacity in tribute to Caesar and at the same time expect to get gobs and gobs and gobs of Christmas presents from him long long long after the holidays, then your fall off the cliff will be especially brutal. And all I see is bazillions of folks right now running to leap off that cliff.
On the other hand should you switch over to the One who loves you, who knows love, who does love, who is love, who'd died to love, who loves you, who will have you then love others with others so the wealth of your production manifests itself in authentic joy and rapturous peace and sowing vast abundance of both material and spiritual things into the lives of everyone...
Wow.
That there'd be really pretty-good sized groups of people who are Christ's and not Caesar's...
There'd be no cliff.
Just the Kingdom.
Can you imagine? Bazillions instead running at break-neck speed
To the Kingdom?
I keep praying...
_
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