Proverbs 22:1-8 -- The issue with Capitalism
A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
This is the fundamental problem with capitalism. Corporations are supposed to only be focused on great riches. Studies have shown that this causes corporations to act as psychopaths. If corporations are indeed "persons," their mental condition can accurately be described as pathological. Corporations have no innate moral impulses, and in fact they exist solely for the purpose of making money. As such, these "persons" are systemically driven to do whatever is necessary to increase revenues and profits, with no regard for ethical issues that might nag real people.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201103/why-corporations-are-psychotic
2 Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.
I have met billionaires, I have met people who were royalty, I have met the family of famous rock stars like the Rolling Stones, I have met people who were royalty but have been deposed, and I have met people who were poor, uneducated, and happy to make minimum wage. What is amazing is how similar they all are. If you gave them all the same clothes and put them in a lineup I would not be able to tell them apart. Some of the dumbest people I ever met were making $100,000 or more a month. Some of the most ordinary people I have ever met were the kids of the elites.
3 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
Think about Bernie Madoff. The man was very wealthy and very successful before he even started his ponzi scheme. Why do it? Why trade a good name for riches, and very temporary riches at that. It wasn’t the prudent thing to do, it tells me he was “simple”. Surely once he started down this path he kept going until he had to pay the penalty.
4 Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.
I suspect this is the big issue. Bernie Madoff lacked humility. He probably had a bad quarter and rather than admit to it, rather than let people see “he wasn’t all that” he thought he could cheat. Cook the books and as long as many people signed up for his fund he would be able to cover anyone wishing to pull money out.
5 In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls, but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.
You see this as a teacher, some kids choose to cheat. That is the path they take and on that path there are snares and pitfalls. As long as Madoff could sign up more new money than people leaving he could keep up the illusion. The first snare is that the only way to do that is to have higher reported earnings than everyone else. Investing the money is risky, you could always have a bad quarter. You have to be opaque because at the end of each quarter you will have to have some bogus set of trades that shows you were getting better returns than the rest of the street. Your fund will grow into billions and billions but you don’t need research, anyone involved with the company would learn it was a sham. One lie becomes ten and ten lies become a thousand. All it takes is for one lie to become exposed and the whole house of cards collapses. It is very easy to turn down this path, but once you do it is very difficult to leave it and after only a few months it would be impossible to leave without confessing to your crime, destroying the entire company and going to jail.
6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
Compare Bernie Madoff with Warren Buffet. From a young age he saw profitable businesses as cash machines. As a kid he invested in a vending machine and realized it was like a box which you go to each day and get money out of. He took this approach to investing, and his life became very simple. Find a good business, understand it, realize it is like a stock that will keep spitting out money each month, and buy it. Gillette razor blades, Coca Cola, Car insurance. Those are the things he invested in and then spent much of his time playing bridge. No worries, just profit. If there was a bad month he had no problem putting out those numbers. In one meeting he said he wanted to thank his personal trainer but the man begged him not to. It was a self effacing joke that demonstrates a guy who is humble.
7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
This is the point. How do you make slaves? You lend money to them. At one point in my life my Dad told me he was shocked at how little money I had (he disapproved of me being a full time Christian evangelist). I said that is true, but I don’t have any debts. How many people can say that? How many are “debt free”? Biden’s policies are designed to make the US slaves. He might argue that the US was already on this path before he became president. That may be true but no one has embraced borrowing money (spending money you don’t have) more than he has.
8 Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.
What a great picture of today. The two impeachments of Trump were injustice, the lies and slander about the previous administration were injustice, the election fraud is injustice. They will reap for everything they have done. We have inflation, and are swamped with immigrants taking low wage jobs and using government resources. These last two years have been a disaster for the poor, estimates are they have lost something like $10,000 since Biden was president. They are going to reap calamity. Also look at the rod they are wielding in fury accusing Trump supporters of insurrection, they talked about reprogramming 75 million Americans, threatened to quarantine the entire state of Florida, and punished Georgia for racism by sending the All star game to Denver. The rod of “cancel culture” will be broken. MLB, NBA and NFL ratings are down 40% across the board. CNN, Budweiser and Target have learned what happens when you push the woke agenda. Biden claimed he was far more experienced than Trump and would be much better at foreign diplomacy. How is that working out? War between Israel and Iran has already reignited, the exit from Afghanistan was a complete failure and humiliation, China appears to be emboldened to attack Taiwan and we are on the verge of a nuclear war in Ukraine.