From the Book of Genesis, Chapter 47:
13: And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
14: And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.
15: And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.
16: And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
17: And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.
18: When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:
19: Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
20: And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's.
21: And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.
22: Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.
23: Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
24: And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.
25: And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.
The Holy Bible, Genesis 47, 13-25 (King James version, from Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library).
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=KjvGene.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=47&division=div1
The Bible is rich in stories of past events that read like today and always provide a warning for today. Genesis, as one example, describes the world of all-powerful Pharaoh at the time of Joseph. In a dream Pharaoh is given a vision of a period of prosperity and penury, which Joseph interprets as a forecast of what is to come. Seven bountiful years of abundant harvests, Joseph tells Pharaoh, were to be followed by seven years of famine when, evidently, the overflowing waters of the Nile would fail to appear and the land would not produce its bountiful harvest.
As the famine began to take its toll, people became increasingly willing to give up anything in return for food. First they paid for grain with money, until the money ran out. Then they paid with their cattle and livestock, until they had no livestock. When Pharaoh had all the money and livestock and the people again became hungry, all they had left was their land and themselves, which they gave up for a meal. Having given up their money, livestock and land, they were reduced to bondage and serfdom. And still the people grew hungry, and in return for seed to grow more food they agreed to give back one-fifth of what they grew. In this story, over time, as people faced an increasingly difficult situation, independence and exchange gave way to serfdom and dependence and taxation, and through it all people moved willingly and with gratitude to those who became their taskmasters, even someone like Joseph, who while he gained nothing for himself yet he made them and their children servants forever.
Following a worldwide economic upturn of seven years, this country and the rest of the world have now entered what would appear to be a prolonged period of pronounced economic decline and spreading turmoil. World trade and industrial production have collapsed, bank failures and corporate bankruptcies are accelerating everywhere, plant closings and housing foreclosures are on the rise, currencies are teetering in foreign exchange markets, and many tens of millions are unemployed across the planet. In the midst of this worsening situation, government budgets are not only strained but under immense pressure to repair their insolvent financial systems, boost domestic levels of economic activity and employment, and address the need to encourage a buoyant international economy from whence much of their past rising productivity can be traced. And like the Pharaoh of millennia ago, governments and their leaders are increasingly besieged by scared people to help them through this crisis.
And like the people of millennia ago, the lure of serfdom for the feeling of security haunts the thoughts of those who have lost so much and fear so much for the future. In the back of their minds is the same natural inclination of mankind for someone to take charge in a crisis and save them from the catastrophe that threatens their future and that of their children. Many of these people see Barack Obama as a leader that appears to be just like Joseph: Confident and self-assured, intelligent and forward-looking, strong and stern at times and yet considerate and compassionate when necessary. And in some ways, as a leader in the midst of a crisis he seems to act just like Joseph: Always acting in the name of the state, always after people’s money, always promoting a vision of immediate hardship but ultimate achievement, always sure of his own message and what needs to be done, and in the end, when people are weak in their love of freedom, always furthering their dependency on the state.
However, Joseph also re-planted the seeds of private ownership and self-reliance when he initiated a policy of letting the Egyptians keep 80 percent of the crops grown from the seed Pharaoh gave them (Genesis 47:23-26). While the government provided the bare necessities to keep life going during a time of unprecedented need, under Joseph’s wise direction it also laid the foundation for long-term stability and prosperity in which the worker could keep the most of his increase and in which he assumed responsibility to feed himself and his children (47:24). This is in keeping with the Biblical principles of private ownership of property (Exodus 20:15), people being rewarded for their hard work (Romans 4:4; 1 Timothy 5:17,18; cf. Proverbs 6:6-11), and the supreme importance of providing for one’s own family, which outweighs even our responsibility to other “spiritual” priorities (1 Timothy 5:8).
Where Obama differs from Joseph is in the American president’s desire to “re-make” America into a country of continuous collectivist responsibility for one another rather than a nation of self-reliance and dependence upon the family unit. Obama’s vision in contrast denigrates the role of the family by reassuring the public that the government (i.e. “your neighbors”) will assume responsibility for the needy via a plethora of new government programs. Thus families need not keep track of hurting relatives because the state promises to do so, albeit in a colder, more sterile fashion. Rather than allowing families to keep the vast majority of their income, as Joseph did with his 20 percent tax rate, President Obama is raising taxes to confiscatory levels, so that parents will bequeath less to their children and have less to invest in their neighbors’ businesses. This will stagnate or stifle economic growth, depressing wages and our overall standard of living for years to come. Instead of encouraging each family to grow its own wealth and take care of its own, as Joseph did, Barack Obama is enlarging the role of government and “collective” responsibility, in which it is not clear who exactly is responsible for another human being other than the collective “whole.” In these and many other ways he is trampling God’s wisdom for ordering society.
Joseph took his people through a crisis situation but laid the groundwork for them to become self-sufficient when times returned to normal. Barack Obama is taking a crisis and using it to increase Americans’ dependence upon the government for important commodities like food, health-care, housing, education, energy, and their retirement incomes, among other things. The huge and expensive government infrastructure he is expanding will be difficult to shrink if too many Americans grow lazily accustomed to it. At the same time, it is hard to imagine how the government can deliver all that it is promising to give through such a complex and bankrupt bureaucracy. One must wonder why Mr. Obama does not follow the example of Joseph in providing intensive assistance only for the short run and otherwise throwing the responsibility for long-term prosperity back to the individual American and his family, where such responsibility belongs.
The real threat of the current economic crisis is that desperate citizens are willing to enter permanent servitude in a false rush to alleviate their immediate misery. President Obama seems to be the right man to hasten this rush into serfdom.
A tip of the hat to my daughter Joy for her contributions.
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