More on Capitalism

Dear Readers,

I love Woody Guthrie. One of my favorite Woody Guthrie songs, if not my favorite Guthrie song, is called “Jesus Christ,” and it goes a little something like this: (Thanks to http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Jesus_Christ.htm, the place I stole these lyrics from.)

Jesus Christ was a man who traveled through the land
A hard-working man and brave
He said to the rich, "Give your money to the poor,"
But they laid Jesus Christ in His grave

Jesus was a man, a carpenter by hand
His followers true and brave
One dirty little coward called Judas Iscariot
Has laid Jesus Christ in His Grave

He went to the preacher,
He went to the sheriff He told them all the same
"Sell all of your jewelry and give it to the poor,"
And they laid Jesus Christ in His grave.

When Jesus come to town, all the working folks around
Believed what he did say
But the bankers and the preachers, they nailed Him on the cross,
And they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.

And the people held their breath when they heard about his death
Everybody wondered why
It was the big landlord and the soldiers that they hired
To nail Jesus Christ in the sky

This song was written in New York City
Of rich man, preacher, and slave
If Jesus was to preach what
He preached in Galilee,
They would lay poor Jesus in His grave.

Who are the enemies in this song? The bankers, the cops, and the landlords.

And who are the heroes? The workin’ folks. The hard-working, migrant, humble followers of Jesus.

What I love about that song is how Woody emphasizes Jesus’ social and economic policies. The song doesn’t mention Jesus performing miracles, it doesn’t mention Jesus’ divinity; the song focuses on how Jesus treated the lower class.

I can just imagine how hard-hitting this song would have been to all the anti-Union Coal Company Executives and Fruit Company Executives of Woody Guthrie’s time who professed Christianity.

Sigh.

I’ve run the capitalism/socialism topic into the ground and I’m tired of writing about it. I have this big long rambling word document saved on my computer about Milton Friedman and blah blah blah but I can’t seem to make sense out of the whole thing and make it reader-friendly. Maybe I keep writing about capitalism/socialism/utopia because the subject is so vast and I can’t make sense of it.

I think I’m just undergoing a change in my view about business and capitalism. I used to draw pictures of men in business suits with devil-horns.

I used to regard corporations as anti-art, anti-people, anti-creativity, pro-conformity, money-hungry… I used to think that big business, commercialism, and the like hurt people, oppressed people, exploited people, took advantage of people… I used to talk about corporations as huge faceless, soulless entities, not comprised of people but comprised of numbers and robots. I don’t know if my ideas about big business came from myself or from the media or what but for some reason I used to really be afraid of the idea of a McDonalds inside of a Wal-Mart.

But now I’m starting to change my mind about those things. And I happily shop at Wal-Mart all the time.

I may not be able to explain all my reasons, but right now I think it’s safe to say that capitalism and the free market has historically provided more comfort and a higher standard of living to more people than any other economic system.

Unless you count the two hundred years recorded in Fourth Nephi in the Book of Mormon. That’s when the Nephites “had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.” 4 Nephi 1: 3, But remember that that peace did not come about through secular social reformers. That change came about not through students of economics and sociology; rather, that peace came about through a large group of people submitting to God’s will.

One of my favorite church quotes, and it comes into my mind frequently, is “A study of correct doctrine improves behavior quicker than a study of correct behavior improves behavior.” I feel like studying the economy is the same as studying the behavior of a peaceful, prospering society. And doesn’t bring about peace and prosperity for all. It seems like it should, but it doesn’t.

I think some people want what the LDS culture has- low divorce rates, kids who do well in school, prosperity, etc.- but they want to ignore our doctrine. Ultimately, you cannot have our blessings if you cannot accept our doctrine.

I heard a story once, and I don’t know if its true, but it sounds cool, about some official military people coming to the Missionary Training Center, wanting to figure out how LDS missionaries learned foreign languages so fast. Well, the MTC people said, “Our missionaries learn other languages so fast because they have been blessed with the gift of tongues.” And the military people were like, “Yeah right, whatever, just let us copy your language training program.” So the official military people got copies of the LDS language learning manuals and sat in on lessons and such, and then took all their information back to the military. The military tried to implement all the stuff they had learned from the MTC, but, -can you guess the end of the story?- it didn’t work out so well, because the secular military didn’t have the gift of tongues.

Moral of the story: when you try to imitate LDS social practices while disregarding LDS doctrine, it does not work out so well.

Blah blah blah…

I don’t think that any secular economic system will keep the wicked from being really bad and… blah blah blah…

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa