theTrumpet.com

Global economic trouble is forcing an important lesson to the surface: that government dependency is a bad idea.

Half of Greece is on strike, grinding the nation to a standstill. Why? In order to avoid total collapse, the government is taking steps to slash its ridiculous debt and curb its reckless spending—and the people simply won’t stand for it. “They are cutting my allowances and I have two children to raise,” complained one striking civil servant.

Governments all over Europe are tightening their belts to survive the crisis. This means dependent Europeans will be suffering cutbacks in vital public services, shrinking benefit programs, wage freezes for government workers—and, frustratingly, simultaneous tax hikes. Similar hardships are battering the Japanese.

In America, the pain is seeping into more and more facets of life as states and counties face budget shortfalls and compulsory cutbacks. Squeezed education budgets mean pay cuts and layoffs for teachers, bigger classes, fewer school days, reduced school bus runs, and library closures. Chopped agricultural spending in Michigan could hurt farmers statewide. Mass transportation patrons in New York will pay higher fares to ride more-crowded trains. One Illinois county is laying off three out of four police officers; the county sheriff’s patrol cars are being repossessed. Reading, Pennsylvania, has cut its police and vice squad down to four people. Nearly 1,000 prisoners in Michigan—including convicted murderers—could be freed in order to save money. And the list goes on.

The extent of governments’ reach into our lives is becoming clearer as their resources are drying up and our benefits are shriveling. The fact across the board is that the people hardest hit are those most dependent on government.

Ironically, however, it is in this economic climate that Washington wants to deepen Americans’ dependency on the nanny state. It has taken over the mortgage and insurance industries; it is swallowing the automotive and banking industries; it is trying to federalize the health-care industry. Activist politicians are systematically erasing the line between public and private sectors. As George Will said in his recent cpac speech, “They tend to regard the multiplication of entitlements and that entitlement mentality as enhancing the public good. Therefore they are for spreading dependency. Dependency on government is not an unfortunate corollary of what they are advocating—it is their agenda.”

All told, government spending now accounts for almost 30 percent of the total U.S. economy. Government employs 20 million people directly and many millions more indirectly. Meanwhile, the Obama administration plans to grow the size of the federal workforce to a record 2.15 million employees.

As busted budgets are shutting governments down the world over, isn’t this a spectacular example of just not getting it?

It is the nature of government to expand. Government benefits are a highly addictive narcotic. This is particularly true in a representative system, where, for politicians who are accountable to voters and special interests, reducing entitlements is a good way to get kicked out of office. Thus, government becomes an ever-costlier operation, demanding increasingly more of the people’s wealth to sustain. Today, Washington alone consumes about 30 percent of the income of 300 million people in the wealthiest nation in the world—and still isn’t even close to staying within budget. Apparently no amount of money would be enough, because the growth of the government’s financial commitments continually outpaces the growth of its income.

Thus, the government is printing dollars and borrowing from foreigners in once undreamed-of sums. And because these fixes haven’t yet put a dent in the problem, there is absolutely no way to tell how much further the government will allow itself to go. This economic crisis was created by overborrowing and overspending. Yet the government behaves as though the solution is to borrow and spend all the more.

The costs of these mushrooming entitlements include higher taxes, mounting inflation and deeper debt, all of which have horrible economic and even geopolitical ramifications of their own. Consider, for example, the loss of sovereignty America is experiencing because of its skyrocketing indebtedness to China. On top of that, however, are the poisonous personal effects of government dependency, which can include decreased sense of individual responsibility, degraded work ethic, the fragmentation of families, and a sense of entitlement that engenders selfishness, thanklessness and unhappiness. Nasty kickbacks.

Still, as evidence of governmental failure mounts—and it continues to prove in arena after arena to be the least efficient and most wasteful of institutions—people’s faith in the government being the best solution, to this point, seems largely unshaken. Perhaps they sense that events are barreling toward a painful end and are hoping against hope there is yet some magical federal fix that will prevent the pain.

But there isn’t. The United States, along with an increasing number of countries worldwide, is broke. Soon, the entitlements will stop. And given many people’s deep addiction to them, you can count on there being some violent withdrawal symptoms.

The situation calls to mind a warning God gave to the ancient nation of Israel, recorded in 1 Samuel 8. He governed the people directly, with a comparatively light touch, through a small collection of human leaders. While the people obeyed God, He blessed them for it. But when they disobeyed, curses began to befall them, and they felt they would be better off with a human king and a system of government more like the nations around them had.

If that’s what you want—fine, God responded. But realize that that king’s government is bound to expand. He will introduce burdensome taxes. He will create bureaucratic bloat. His rulership will grow increasingly oppressive. This biblical passage provides extraordinary insight into the most common pitfall of man’s government: its tendency to amass power, property and wealth—wealth that should remain in the hands of the citizens.

The form of God’s government described in the Bible, particularly in the laws He gave for the governance of the physical nation of Israel, is far more generous, far less intrusive, and far more interested in building the prosperity of its people, than anything we see in the world today. Studying it highlights the deep flaws in America’s system. (And these laws still apply, in spiritual principle, within the Church today.)

Consider some things God’s government does not do. It does not manage people’s money—for health care or retirement. Remove those programs from America’s books, and you instantly solve the budget problems.

God’s government does not own and run businesses that compete with businesses run by the people. It facilitates wealth creation rather than interfering with it. It encourages assets to remain in families generation to generation, which increases general prosperity and family unity.

Further, God’s government operates nothing like a welfare system as we see today. With few exceptions, the poor are cared for—and encouraged to return to earning their daily bread—not federally, but locally, through laws requiring specific acts of charity from family and community. The idea that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that everyone is cared for regardless of their own effort directly contradicts biblical laws. Though most people would strongly criticize any government that didn’t have a robust welfare system, the laws that God gave His model nation encourage responsibility, hard work, strong character, and community and family cohesion—all while making government far more efficient. (Read our article “A New World Economy” for more on this subject.)

There are myriad other differences between God’s form of government and the socialistic one we see governing nations today, including America. Many of these differences effectively reduce the reach of government into people’s financial affairs and keep the size of government small.

This form of government comes with many benefits, but a very noticeable one, as alluded to in 1 Samuel 8, is the fact that it is so much less expensive. It doesn’t require the leeching of an enormous amount of wealth from the people in order to fund its perpetual expansion. God has always funded His government, and always will, with a general flat tax of 10 percent, called a tithe (e.g. Leviticus 27:30, 32). Two years out of every seven, there is an additional tithe meant to support specific individuals who don’t have the benefit of family support. Simple. Functional. Efficient. It is how God operates His Church even today. Soon, upon Jesus Christ’s Second Coming, He will establish that government worldwide.

Surely many would look at these laws and scoff. They can choose to put their faith in government—for a while longer, anyway. But the kickbacks will only get nastier and nastier.

Why not put faith in God instead? •