Jesus and the New Deal
"If a man will not work, he shall not eat. We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.”
2 Thessalonians 3:10-12
Here are a few facts to digest:
We have the highest unemployment since the great depression.
Unemployment is projected to stay in double digits for months, if not years to come.
Layoffs have hit low income and non-college graduates the hardest.
Infection and death rates due to COVID-19 are projected to rise significantly in the months to come.
The federal government has spent about $3 trillion dollars in direct payments to businesses and individuals.
There are talks for another $1 - $3 trillion dollars of direct payments.
None of these payments produced anything tangible – they helped people to be able to pay their bills while raising the national debt astronomically.
We desperately need to improve our infrastructure – roads, bridges, data transmission, power transmission, local health clinics, etc.
When you put all of this together, it’s obvious: the only way out of this new depression is a new New Deal.
Why are we printing money like there’s an endless supply to pay people to sit on their hands? Shouldn’t we be investing in people to produce something that we obviously need and that will benefit the generations to come?
When President Roosevelt proposed the original New Deal he was accused of being a socialist. His plans would balloon the size of government for unneeded projects, his critics said.
These “unneeded projects” included more than 4,000 new school buildings, 130 new hospitals, 9,000 miles of storm drains and sanitary sewer lines, 29,000 new bridges, 150 new airfields, 280,000 miles of roads, and the planting 24 million trees.
His response to his critics? “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
Sounds a little like 1 John 3:17: “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
We need a proactive, aggressive, strategic plan to put people to work improving the lives of all of us, and only the federal government can do it.