Many of us have mixed feelings about how much government should intervene in order to help us out of the economic crisis we face, and how much it should stay out of the way and allow things to fall how they may.
In any case, communities need to care for their own and help people take charge of their own destinies. By nature, this is a Republican point of view. Republicans are adamant that government stand back and allow the people to solve their own problems. That means churches and communities need to step up to the plate and take care of people and help out where they can.
On the other hand, Democrats think government needs to take care of it’s people and intervene into our lives in a variety of ways. It’s truely a difference of opinion, but history proves that letting people help themselves has greater benefits. It is not healthy to make people dependent on others for what they can do for themselves, along with a little helping hand.
For example, if someone is hungry you take them fishing. You show them how to catch a fish so they can feed themselves instead of giving him a fish for free. One way enables a person to care for himself, and the other disables him and makes him dependent on you to keep providing him fish.
People helping people is much more rewarding, and has a greater impact on the soul, than government stepping in to solve the problems that make us suffer. When government becomes involved, people can loose their self-reliance and become dependent on their benefactor.
People loose self-reliance when they become dependent. They become more and more demanding of their benefactor for what they need and want. People no longer see that they can do things for themselves or on their own, and so they expect government to do it for them. In other words, they become crippled and unable to care for the basics by themselves anymore.
A perfect example of what I’m saying is described in the excerpt below from the Patriot Post . US.
Excerpt from PatriotPost.US 08-31 Brief
Markets often get blamed for conveying a reality that was not created by the market.
Markets were also blamed for the Great Depression of the 1930s and New Deal politicians were credited with getting us out of it. But increasing numbers of economists and historians have concluded that it was government intervention which prolonged the Great Depression beyond that of other depressions where the government did nothing.
The stock market crash of 1987 was at least as big as the stock market crash in 1929. But, instead of being followed by a Great Depression, the 1987 crash was followed by 20 years of economic growth, with low inflation and low unemployment.
The Reagan administration did nothing in 1987, despite outrage in the media at the government’s failure to live up to its responsibility, as seen in liberal quarters. But nothing was apparently what needed to be done, so that markets could adjust. The last thing politicians can do in an election year is nothing.
So we can look for all sorts of ‘solutions’ by politicians of both parties. Like most political solutions, these are likely to make matters worse.” —Thomas Sowell
Do you agree that Government has its place? If you do, that means we must recognize this fact whenever we ask government to get involved in our business.
Keeping all this in mind, the question is what should government do now that we face a depresssion? That’s the big question, isn’t it? It’s this question that divides the parties and the people these days. Somehow, we need to find a way to bridge this gap in government and the people.
We’ve made the mistakes, and now it’s going to be painful to rectify what’s been created. It won’t be easy, but we need to do this with the right kind of help from government; that would be what allows self-reliance and free enterprise.
Do you see this economic situation as a political problem, based on party divisions? Do you think that business and economics, if left alone, can fix it? Keeo in mind what happened when Congress gave out massive bailout money. The money went to banks buying banks, giving CEOs big bonuses, and sneaking in pork like condoms. Politicians just don’t get it. And they keep digging us into a deeper hole.
What do you think is the solution? Do you think Obama can do what it takes to fix the problem?
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