Category Archives: Wisdom

The problem with sleepwalking through a bad life is that it makes it worse

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From chapter 6 of the Proverbs of Solomon:

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
have given your pledge for a stranger,
if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,
then do this, my son, and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

And then this from Proverbs 10.5:

He who gathers in summer is a prudent son,
but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Proverbs 19.15:

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.

20.13:

Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty;
open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.

and then full circle in Proverbs 24:

I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

So far so clear, but I wonder…

In the Bible, sleep as rest is not a bad thing. In the same chapter 6 we read:

My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
Bind them on your heart always;
tie them around your neck.
When you walk, they will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.

Likewise Proverbs 3.21-24:

My son, do not lose sight of these—
keep sound wisdom and discretion,
and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
Then you will walk on your way securely,
and your foot will not stumble.
If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

So, let me make an intuitive leap. Maybe there are ways of sleeping while one is upright, walking, or sitting on the couch. Maybe loving “sleep” isn’t just sleeping in too late. Maybe it refers to the escapist witless stuff we all do rather than deal with reality. Remember what it is that destroys fools: “the complacency of fools destroys them” (Proverbs 1.32).

People don’t want to face up to their situation. They don’t want to believe that they are headed for poverty. They feel powerless to stop it. They would rather just forget and watch some TV.

The only way to stay awake is to live by faith.

Do not be afraid of sudden terror
or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,
for the LORD will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught.
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.

Keeping track of your situation and working hard doesn’t automatically or obviously lead away from poverty. Your situation can appear entirely hopeless. But you have to trust God and show the diligence in stewardship that he wants from you.

Consumer Christians in An Age of Plastic: The College Years

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Before the blogosphere brought debate-p07n to your lap, you had to go to a church or college to get in ideological fights to affirm your superiority over others. Back in the 80s, the Religious Right was something of a phenomenon, which meant it was an object of general scorn on Christian college campuses–not always for imaginary reasons, but one got the impression that real facts were only collected by happy accident.

Back then Ron Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger was a Bible for the cool socially conscious Christian college student who wasn’t smart enough to get a computer or business degree but wanted to feel like he was making the right choice.  And then came out David Chilton’s Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt-Manipulators which allowed students like me to feel the same. The blogosphere was still stuck in book publishing back then.

So there were sides drawn on some Christian college campuses: Evangelicals for Socialist Action versus Ugly Americans for Christ or something like that. And the debates and arguments provided great entertainment over minimum wage law, welfare, and the legitimacy of the profit motive, etc.

And we discussed this stuff not just in class, or on bulletin boards (literal real space bulletin boards where we posted notes made of real paper), or in the school student newspaper–but often while eating Pizza in a dorm room, or while eating chicken wings at the campus fast food joint. Or we would discuss it in the car while we were going out to a rock concert or a restaurant (even that was a mini-road trip where I went to college).

We paid for food on many an evening, even though we were all on the meal plan.

None of us had plastic yet, then in the second half of the eighties. I remembered being amazed at all the direct mail we were sent right before graduation telling us to buy a new car on credit.

But our behavior was rather interesting.

I have good authority that Ron Sider lived what he preached. He wanted everyone to live on $38k in 80s dollars, if I recall correctly, so that they gave everything else away. This feat required low-budget living and careful planning. It meant living on a severe budget and thus tracking expenses.

And I opposed this ESA agenda with a message about persistence in labor, patience, saving, risk-taking, and responsibility for one’s life and the lives of one’s dependents.

And we argued about this over pizza.

It never occurred to me to point out that none of my leftist student friends seemed to be even slightly prepared for a life of austerity and budgeting so that they could give away the excess. And it never occurred to me that the money I earned in college was for any other purpose other than to spend on immediate wants–my needs were taken care of along with tuition.

Saving and all the rest were for other people in another life. As long as I worked at graduating with a decent GPA, nothing else mattered. I was free to spend and consume. Real economic initiative and responsibility beyond that one duty would wait for when I was in the real world with a real job.

I lived in a bubble–to use a pregnant financial term.

I and my ESA friends lived exactly the same sort of economic life.

And Dave Ramsey and Ron Sider have more in common with each other than they did with either group of students.

The Political Reason it is Easier to Go into Debt than to Save

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People are constantly talking about historically low interest rates that should make it easier to buy a home. We constantly hear about how the government needs to make it easier to get loans or get credit. We still hear ads, even in our current economy, about zero-down and same as cash (mostly cars now; used to be everything).

To hear politicians and businesses alike, low prices are a disaster for anything but money. Money should be cheap to rent.

But what if you want to save?

There is nothing out there other than gambling in the stock market that will match inflation.

So what is the motive to save? Your money is losing value every day.

I hear Dave Ramsey talk about 12 percent returns over the long haul. I can’t find any productive saver I know who believes him.

Yes, people should resist the enticements of “free money” that will lead to debt slavery. But the fact is that the incentive to be a producer rather than a consumer has been greatly mangled by economic policy. The government intentionally forces the price of money at below market value and then it backstops (whether any politician will admit it or not until the bubble bursts) people who deal in unsecured debt. I just got checks offered from one credit card company with a letter that told me they wanted to be there to help me in case I had any emergency expenses. And they would charge me almost thirty percent interest. The highest Savings Account I can find will only give me 2.06 percent interest.

I’m not adding yet another category to this blog, but I think this post is part of a trend in my thinking. Possibly related:

What kind of society will be able to help those in need?

The Bubble and government policy in one lesson

My next entry in this line will talk about why a corporation in political control of a country (i.e. a state) would find it desirable to promote debt rather than saving.

What kind of society will be able to help those in need?

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I’m not capable of listing every quality of such a society. But I do know one prerequisite:

Each individual must, all things being equal, believe it is a duty, privilege, and/or virtue to produce more than he/she consumes.

Is there any chance at all that such a society can continue to exist under the rule of a welfare state?  When politicians forcefully take from some and give to others (in the hopes of their continued support in voting and propaganda) what kind of society is formed?

Not the kind that will actually support the needy.

The Bubble and government policy in one lesson

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Retailers – Reality Check Time by Jim Quinn.

Reading this article made me think that I might be able to explain the basic dynamic of the economic meltdown without having to mess with too many details. The details are important, but they can hide the structure.

Start with this basic premise: the government wants to promote industry.

And then add a second premise: the government finds out that people are more likely to buy things if they have easy credit.

So if the government supports and promotes easy credit, then it can get people to buy more stuff.  When people buy more stuff, more industry is supported.

So, they find a way to do this. Unsecured credit is given to many people who in turn buy stuff. Whether it is houses or flat-screen TVs doesn’t matter.

But what happens when people have too much debt? They have to cut back. Not only do they have to cut back because they don’t have enough money to buy; they have to cut back even more because getting out of debt becomes a priority. People want to be free of the debt burden.

But since everyone was given the incentive to use credit everyone is cutting back at roughly the same time. Furthermore, the sudden drop in spending by a small group endangers the viability of industries that are dependent on consumer purchases. So the people whose jobs are endangered suddenly realize their debt load is too high and add to the growing number of people trying to get out of debt rather than purchasing gadgets.

Third premise, once those in government see that this is happening, they do all they can to hide the problem and extend the credit.

So the problem grows as the collapse is delayed.

The only solution to the problem is to end the artificial political debt encourager and enabler, suffer through a massive readjustment to the economy, and then grow at a normal rate from there.

Fourth premise, the government never admits that it is responsible for a problem or that it cannot fix a problem.

And so we go from disaster to disaster.