Translate

Monday, September 14, 2020

 

God Is In Control! So?

I was sitting in my chair, looking out the window at the squirrels running up and down the tree, when I “got to thinking”. There are all kinds of people who, on the “Bell Curve”, ranging from unbelievers on one end to devout believers in Christianity on the other, who sincerely believe in life after death, when they will live forever with Almighty God in Heaven. They believe God is in control, don’t worry, everything will “come out all right”. I share that too. I am told there are those who have given up everything, gone up onto a hill and are waiting the second coming. Now, I’m not so sure about that. My question is, “when is ‘everything coming out all right’ going to happen—before I die or afterwards?”

Moving right along, assuming “everything is going to come out all right”—God is in control; am I to sit and continue to watch the squirrels run up and down the tree or “get off my duff”, go to work, and “earn my bread by the sweat of my brow” as instructed by God in the Book of Genesis? The additional commands of Jesus for me to “go into the world and spread His Word” notwithstanding, am I to improve my position in life and that of my family through hard work, education, and participation in society as a responsible citizen, caring about the affairs of my country and the world; or, again, do I just leave it to God—He’s in control?

I know God is going to take care of me in the life to come, but what about this life? Do I not have to worry “in the now”? I never hear a preacher preach about this. In meetings where we discuss various problems in the church, our homes, our lives, country, etc., I not infrequently hear somebody say, “God’s in charge. Don’t worry. He’ll take care of it”. You know what? That scares me to death (sometimes). Let me remind you. Nero soaked Christians in oil and burned them at the stake, and it’s hard to find anyone more loyal to Christ than them. So why should we feel carefree and fearless in this life just because “God is in charge”? Do we not have to be concerned and responsible citizens in this life while we are still here, or do we just turn our back on our worldly responsibilities leaving them to God?

What do you think?

Respectfully,

 

Ronald Miller

www.sageobserver.blogspot.com

 

Tuesday, March 10, 2020


Cutting Payroll Taxes

President Trump has announced that he is going to pursue a stimulus to our economy in order to cope with its present decline resulting from the Corona Virus and the oil war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. As part of his stimulus, he proposes a cut in payroll taxes—an extremely shortsighted and unwise decision, to say the least. Just listening to this recalls to my mind the words of the great French economist, Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) in his discussion of “That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen”:

“In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate: it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause — it is seen. The others unfold in succession — they are not seen: it is well for us, if they are foreseen. Between a good and a bad economist this constitutes the whole difference — the one takes account of the visible effect; the other takes account both of the effects which are seen, and also of those which it is necessary to foresee. Now this difference is enormous, for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favourable, the ultimate consequences are fatal, and the converse. Hence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good, which will be followed by a great evil to come, while the true economist pursues a great good to come, — at the risk of a small present evil.”

Reducing payroll taxes to stimulate the economy is easy. It is popular and readily acceptable to those on the receiving end; but, from whence does the money come to pay our Social Security and Medicare? Does it come out of the air? I don’t think so, and I suspect neither do you. How about when the time comes to reinstate these tax cuts? How popular and readily acceptable will that be then? How much harder will it be for our Representatives and Senators in the Congress to sell to the people?

Let us pursue this a little further. It is common knowledge that present payments into the fund are insufficient, and tax collections must be increased in order for the fund to remain solvent. How acceptable will that be? Now, when you add this increase to the reinstatement above, how much more difficult will that be to achieve? Are we just going to let our Social Security fund go broke?

But we are not only talking about Social Security. Also included in those payroll deductions are payments for Medicare. Although not frequently discussed, it too is common knowledge, i.e. everybody knows it or should, that Medicare is insufficiently funded. In fact, it is a major contributor to our annual government deficit and, therefore, national debt.

If our long range intent is to keep and improve these benefits for the good of our people, it would seem to me that cutting these payroll deductions to stimulate an already over-stimulated economy (One should note that the preponderance of spending by our country and our people is supported by borrowing, i.e. national debt, credit cards, mortgages, student loans, auto financing, payday loans at 100% interest plus, etc.) is, to say the least, very unwise and short-sighted.

On the other hand, if our plan is to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, this is the way to go. It’s a sure winner.

Hmm… This brings to mind the sayings of Forrest Gump. “You never know what you’re going to get when you open a box of chocolates” I think he also said, “Stupid is as stupid does”.

Also, I am compelled to quote the famous words of William Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to “beware the Ides of March”.

Respectfully,


Ronald Miller


Thursday, December 19, 2019




Our Trash


Speaking in general, the people of this world can be categorized in four types: “Upper Class”, “Middle Class”, “Poor”, and “Trash”. It is the “Trash Class” which I wish to discuss here. Not only does it permeate the other classes “across the board”, it is a chronic detriment to us all and a threat to our world—yours and mine.


Just what is the “Trash Class”? Whom does it include? What are its fruits? Not unlike the first mentioned classes, at first glance those belonging to the “Trash Class” are invisible. They are seen only through their characteristics; they are recognized by their beliefs—their behaviour. 


First and I believe their worst characteristic, they believe only in themselves to the exclusion of others. Greed, avarice, and selfishness are their primary features; thinking only of themselves and their superiority to others, they believe in survival of the fittest and may the devil take the hindmost—to hell with the losers, lacking any appreciation for the many opportunities and advantages with which they were born, failing to recognize that, contrary to what we are told, all men are not created equal. To the contrary,they are equal only in the eyes of God. That’s not an opinion. It’s reality. We are all born with different strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

Second, they are devoid of personal values, i.e. love, caring, forgiveness, and sharing. Rather, they lie, cheat, steal, and deceive—the smile on their faces, their hidden motives and daggers notwithstanding.

Third, they exhibit a lack of conscience. They seem to have little or no sense of guilt. 


I could continue, but why. One either understands by now or one doesn’t. If I may say, God forbid that one reads this and “looks across the aisle to point to others” as “the guilty. Now is the time for every one of us to search ourselves within and without and clean off our own doorsteps before that of others. In some quarters that is referred to as being “born again”. Then, we need to put our priorities in order and, through our vote—only through our vote, “clean house”, ridding ourselves of this “Trash”.


We may disagree on some things; but let there be no doubt in your mind about this: This nation, our nation, The United States of America, cannot and will not survive in today’s world as a free and prosperous people, i.e. a roof over our head, food on the table, warm and secure, free to breath, speak, worship, and come and go as we please, if we fail to remain united as a people with values and love and respect for our neighbor “evvvveeerryyyyywhere we turn”, —black, white, brown, yellow, purple, green, etc. (We are already on a downhill track). We will, instead, succumb to the dictatorial rule of others only to become a blot in the history of time like other great empires of the past and our people serfs.


Let there be no doubt about another fact. Our loyalties and allegiances must first be to Almighty God, Family, and Country, in that order, before any political party. Without a doubt, when you think about political issues, it is not the party, the politician, or the issue on the table that are really at hand (these are the “seen”). The real issues and motives are very often those that are “unseen”, those around the corner, down the road, over the hill, or some Sunday after some Tuesday, etc.—the reasons that compel you to study, learn, contemplate, and “Think”. 


I hope you understand. Political parties promote group loyalty and thinking, providing a “cop-out” for in-depth thinking of the individual. As such, they are primary tools of mind control, people manipulation and crowd control in any given society, the worst aspect of which is that party objectives frequently change, leaving its members voting for one objective, thinking they are voting for another. An example of this is the familiar saying “My grandfather was a Republican, my father was a Republican, by gum and by golly I’m going to be a Republican”. As we all know, the party of Reagan was not the same as the party of George W. Bush, the party of whom was certainly not the party of Trump. Neither is the Democratic party of today the same as the Democratic party of Franklin Roosevelt. What I am trying to say is that, if we want our country to remain a Democratic Republic, we must look beyond party politics, study, think, and learn. We can no longer look wholly to political parties and elected representatives most of whom, after they are elected to office, do not represent us anyway. Rather, they represent the lobbyists who represent those who really are in control, i.e. pull the strings that really decide the direction of our nation (The best example which presently comes to my mind is the NRA, to name just one). Do not forget! With freedom goes responsibility. There is nothing Free. Somebody always pays the bill. Either in the beginning or in the end, that somebody is you. Lose sight of that and you lose your democracy.


There is another important fact here. As a people and a nation, we have many very serious problems. You know this. You also know that we cannot begin to really solve them until we rid ourselves of the “Trash” that permeates our minds and our people—that about which I write here. I suggest to you that which you see on so many bumper stickers, “Let’s Take Back Our Country”; but, I also submit that we will never succeed unless we assume our personal responsibility as citizens and, to the best of our ability, admit and discard our prejudices, keep ourselves informed, and participate in the process of government. One hundred percent of us should vote and vote with knowledge. Think about it.



Respectfully,



Ronald Miller