New York City elects socialist mayor

Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, became the mayor of New York yesterday! While Argentina flees from 80 years of destruction by socialism, New Yorkers think they can make it work. 

Why is democratic socialism still popular? It destroyed every economy in South America over the last century and therefore is a major cause of the tsunami of immigrants from the south.  The latest disasters are Venezuela and Bolivia. Chile recovered from its infatuation with democratic socialism in the 1970s and has been the only Latin country with a growing standard of living since. Recently, Argentina grew tired of the destruction caused by democrat socialism and elected a libertarian president to turn the country around. Europe's economy stagnated a generation ago because of democratic socialist policies. So why do people still cling to such nonsense?

What good has President Trump done?

 

I disapprove of President Trump's tariff economics, as I mentioned. But the President is quietly doing more good than harm by reducing regulations. According to the Whitehouse web site, federal agencies are killing ten old regulations for every new one. 

In his first term, Trump ordered agencies to eliminate two regulations for every new one. They achieved ten this year! Why is that important? 

The National Association of Manufacturers estimate that regulations cost U.S. businesses over $3 trillion every year. That's 12% of gross national product, which is the total income of the country! Wise people, those who know economics, understand that the money could be put to better use. In other words, the real cost of such regulations is the things we give up to pay for them. Can you imagine what we could do with $3 trillion dollars? 

Why Christians should not be leftists

Phil Christman in his latest book Why Christians Should Be Leftists explains why he deconstructed from the politically conservative views of his father to become a socialist. He mentions his father's political views so often that one wonders of he is rebelling against his father more than his politics. Becoming a socialist is a good way to stick it to the man as socialists in the 1960s said. 

Christman teaches first-year writing at the University of Michigan. He holds an MA in English Literature and an MFA in fiction writing. At some point he attended Calvin College, which brainwashed him in Marxism. He swallowed it whole without tasting it, as one does raw oysters. He recently spoke about his book in a podcast on the Protestant Libertarian podcast. Christman says his epiphany came while reading the Sermon on the Mount with friends. 

"That whole economy of losers and winners, with its implied scarcity of worthiness, had disappeared. Or not disappeared but receded: it didn't seem inevitable or fully real anymore. It seemed like a lie that needed to be undone by the constant practice of universal, constant and unvarying love. 

National Conservatism is not Christian

Tariffs, industrial policy, sovereign wealth funds, the government buying shares in corporations, all aspects of National Conservatism, dominates the Republican party today. Because it champions family values and opposes homosexuality and transgenderism, many Christians see it as Christian political philosophy. But it's not. 

NatCons don't hold to a Biblical view of humanity and morality.  They believe that free markets and globalization have destroyed the morals of American, not their sin nature, and the government can improve people's morals. 

Pope Leo is wrong about Elon Musk

 Recently, in an interview for a biography, Pope Leo worried about widening inequality in the world. The Pope said, 

"Add on top of that a couple of other factors, one which I think is very significant is the continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive. For example, CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving, the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more than what average workers are receiving. Yesterday the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world. What does that mean and what’s that about? If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble."

Jesus said, sell everything!

 

Jesus told the rich young ruler in Mark 10 to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. In Luke 12, he encouraged his disciples to sell their things and give to the poor. In Mark 12, Jesus told his disciples that the poor widow who tossed two copper coins into the temple treasury had given more that all the rich people because she gave everything she had, appearing to commend the widow and align with the teaching that we should give everything we have to the poor. 

Providence: the cure for theologians' allergy to economics

Theologians have an allergy to the science of economics. They will quote philosophers and sociologists all day long. But they refuse to read any economics, the best developed and most useful of the social sciences. Even when they think they have given the science a chance, it's easy to see they haven't. For example, when Craig L. Blomberg, Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, wrote "Neither Capitalism nor Socialism: A Biblical Theology of Economics," he argued that he had studied and his views were based on sound economics. They were not. 

If theologians are not Marxists, most will insist like Blomberg that the Bible is neutral on the question of capitalism verses socialism. That doesn't explain why theologians from the 16th century until the late 19th century proclaimed laissez-faire capitalism as Christian economics.