Wir sind bettler. Hoc est verum.

As I was thinking about Wal-Mart and what to do with such a company as that, I started thinking about Capitalism and here are some of my thoughts. Capitalism works period. Capitalism allows people the freedom to acquire and keep personal property, to use their talents to succeed in life and to better their circumstances. Capitalism has taken literally hundreds of millions from poverty as Greenspan as said. So why are we so dissatisfied with it as Americans that we keep looking for socialistic solutions?

The answer I believe lies with God and morality. When we leave God as our moral judge and His moral standards as our guidelines, we no longer know how to live, or are afraid of what we do. When everyone does what is right in their own eyes, evil and injustice will run rampant. Capitalism does allow people great opportunity for evil, but so does every other system. The biggest evil in Capitalism seems to be greed, and the biggest evil in Socialism is injustice, but there is a mix of both in both. Why? Because men are evil by nature and when unrestrained by moral standards, run amuck.

Capitalism works when it is with in the framework of a moral system that restrains men’s actions. If the CEO’s were just as concerned about their standing before a holy God who will hold them accountable for all that He has entrusted to them, money, resources, and personnel, we might see a different corporate culture. If men were concerned about greed and injustice, we might see a different bent in companies from profits being god, to a more restrained view that incorporates profits and moral responsibility. Because men’s hearts worship money and not their Creator, they tend towards attempting to gain as much money as they can with total disregard for their fellow humans. If this earth is all there is and there is no Creator God, then sure do everything you can to make yourself “happy” with total disregard for others, but if there is a God you ought to show some restraint.

Men are worshiping the creation instead of the Creator in every economic system from Socialism to Capitalism, and that’s why both ultimately have enormous evils. Be not deceived the solution to the greed and injustice in America is not switching to Socialism or getting a bigger government to create more law and exert more control on the population, but rather we need revival. We need men to start fearing the God of the Bible again, to start being concerned with their own hearts and the greed and lust there-in. Men need to start being concerned about their neighbor’s good as much as their own.

Capitalism looks like it is failing because evil men (all of us) participate in it. We as a people are defined by greed and lust and not humility, generosity. Capitalism doesn’t need to be replaced, its people need to be reformed, and no government can do that, only a work of God can change the hearts of men. Morality cannot be legislated, men will be evil whether or not you tell them their actions are legal or not.

The failings of Enron, WorldCom and others was not do to a failure of Capitalism, but a failure of morality. These companies were led by men who cared more about money, success, and power that they were willing to lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top. If only these men cared about morality. Alas though, morality is not enough, we can have all the moral laws and standards, everyone can talk about morality and it can be in every one’s hearts but that does not give anyone the power to actually be moral. Apart from God’s changing of our hearts and the empowering of the Holy Spirit no man has a chance at being moral, and even then no man will be fully moral in this life. God must stir us up to good works, He must change our hearts.

In order to save Capitalism we do not need more government or more successful companies we need a revival of the Gospel, we need people on their knees praying for our leaders, and we need God to save people. Until people turn back to God, and He calls them His own and puts His seal upon them, we will continual have evil men destroying the very system which has mothered them.