If I've learned
anything about our country it’s that we are fond of biblical teachings and the founding
fathers. I want to share a bit of both. Leviticus 25:35-37 “If any of your
fellow Israelites become poor and are unable
to support themselves among you, help them as you would a
foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit
from them, but fear your God, so that they may
continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food
at a profit.”
I bring this up
because congress just passed a comprehensive student loan bill that attaches interest
rates to the improvement of the economy. This sounds good considering rates
were going to be over 6% for undergraduates this upcoming school year, but the
reality is that these rates could be 8.5% in less than a decade. We are
basically doing to college tuition what we did to the mortgage industry. We
watched Adjustable Rate Mortgages destroy the wealth of many middle class
Americans, and now we have forced a similar system on to our youth.
James Madison
once said, "The
primary function of government is to protect the minority of the opulent from
the majority of the poor." I’m wondering if I'm being too literal in my
interpretation of these words. The idea of the Federal Republic
As I spend more time with biblical and
historical texts the differences between them becomes more pronounced. Our kids
are being saddled with the equivalent of a mortgage by the time they graduate.
I can't understand why investment banks can borrow our tax dollars at a lower
rate than our kids can.
We worship a free market system that
sends our jobs overseas to Communists countries, hides the profits in more friendly
countries, and speculates on future debt. Instead of addressing the issues that
have a bearing on our lives, we argue and fight over the details. This is the
tragedy of the Occupy Wall Street
