I read in the November Columbus CEO that business owners/executives scored only 38% on tests of financial literacy. So that got me to thinking. How would the rest of us score? So I decided to look into starting a book discussion group that would read a title (I made this up--doesn‘t seem exist) “Basic economics for Christians.”
We know the "Occupiers" know diddly squat about economics, but what about educated conservatives? I think most people who identify themselves as conservatives or Tea Party supporters and who want the government shrunk don’t realize how dependent they’ve pesonally become on the federal government through block grants to states for housing, mandated education standards like NCLB, and churches that accept government money for their “social justice” programs. Maybe they know the Federal Reserve System is not a government agency, but I’m guessing they don’t. Do they know the government has been involved in housing since the Royals were handing out land grants and charters (original colonies mostly named for royalty--North Carolina, Virginia--west of that for Indian names).
Socialism and Keynesian economics might be terms Conservatives have heard of, or even disparage, but do they know they are both anti-Christian and anti-saving for the future? John Maynard Keynes was a homosexual who had little use for families or Christian values--especially not providing for them in the future. He thought money should be spent today and not taken out of circulation for future needs. Do conservatives realize that both GW Bush and Barack Obama are Keynesians? They say they understand what it means that Obama’s advisors at the highest level are Socialists--but so were FDR and his advisors, an era that many revere?
Do they know that for the first two hundred years of the United States our history was taught with a moral and ethical base in public schools, and that since the 1920s God has disappeared from textbooks and in his place is an economic view of history? Do they know what has happened to manufacturing, transportation, and technology just within their own lifetimes? Do they even realize what their own consumerism and desire for more stuff have contributed? Do they know there didn’t used to be an income tax, or how many pages the current code is?
Do conservatives really understand the words million, billion and trillion? When conservatives complain about the cost of federal government do they know that from one dollar in taxes 21 cents go to Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP, 20 cents to Social Security and 20 cents to defense? Medicare, Social Security, and Defense are HUGE issues for conservatives, and a huge drain in a bloated government. Franklin County, Ohio, where I live gets $1.2 Billion in defense contracts. Want that cut? Even if we could reduce fraud, graft and waste, there would be a lot even with a squeaky clean payout.
What we understand and how we vote might be easier if we all understood consumer price index, gross domestic product, corporation, dividends, Laissez-Faire, Marx, Adam Smith, deficit, human capital, price controls, non-profits, for profits, etc. Time to get informed.
Has anyone written the books I'd like to read?
Friday, November 18, 2011
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2 comments:
Economic Facts and Fallacies and Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell are both excellent ones. So is Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton Friedman. The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek is tougher sledding, but it's still good.
If you want an entertaining read, albeit blatantly conservative, either The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism are just what the doctor ordered.
Oops. Shoulda been "either/or." Oh, well.
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