Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
My Daily Meditation
11 For that grace of God, that bringeth salvation unto all men, hath appeared,
12 And teacheth us, that we should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and that we should live soberly and righteously, and godly in this present world,
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and appearing of that glory of that mighty God, and of our Savior Jesus Christ.
14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purge us to be a peculiar people unto himself, zealous of good works.
15 These things speak, and exhort, and convince with all authority. See that no man despise thee.
The Epistle to Titus Chapter 2:11-15
18 And all things are of God, which hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
19 For God was in Christ, and reconciled the world to himself, not imputing their sins unto them, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then are we ambassadors for Christ: as though God did beseech you through us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, that ye be reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, which knew no sin, that we should be made the righteousness of God in him.
The Second Epistle to the Corinthians Chapter 5:18-21
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for among men there is given none other Name under heaven, whereby we must be saved.
The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 4:12
43 To him also give all the Prophets witness, that through his Name all that believe in him, shall receive remission of sins.
The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 10:43
5 For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, which is the man Christ,
6 Who gave himself a ransom for all men, to be that testimony in due time,
The First Epistle to Timothy Chapter 2:6-7
Read One Psalm a Day
Psalm Eighty Eight
1 O Lord God of my salvation, I cry day and
night before thee.
2 Let my prayer enter into thy presence: incline
thine ear unto my cry.
3 For my soul is filled with evils, and my life
draweth near to the grave.
4 I am counted among them that go down unto
the pit, and am as a man without strength,
5 Free among the dead, like the slain laying in
the grave, when thou rememberest no more, and
they are cut off from thy hand.
6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness,
and in the deep.
7 Thine indignation lieth upon me, and thou
hast vexed me with all thy waves. Selah.
8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far
from me, and made me to be abhorred of them: I
am shut up, and cannot get forth.
9 Mine eye is sorrowful through mine affliction:
Lord, I call daily upon thee: I stretch out mine hands
unto thee.
10 Wilt thou show a miracle to the dead? or shall
the dead rise and praise thee? Selah.
11 Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the
grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
12 Shall thy wondrous works be known in the dark?
and thy righteousness in the land of oblivion?
13 But unto thee, have I cried, O Lord, and early
shall my prayer come before thee.
14 Lord, why dost thou reject my soul, and hidest
thy face from me?
15 I am afflicted and at the point of death: from
my youth I suffer thy terrors, doubting of my life.
16 Thine indignations go over me, and thy fear
hath cut me off.
17 They came round about me daily like water,
and compassed me together.
18 My lovers and friends hast thou put away from
me, and mine acquaintance hid themselves.
Monday, March 25, 2013
My Daily Meditations
He lives! As both the Apostles Matthew and Mark have stated in their Gospels; He is the God of the living, not of the dead. The Psalmist David had also said it is not the dead that praise Him, but the living. (see Psalms 115:17, and Psalm 6:5). Give praise and honor to Him that has given you His Grace.
25 For I am sure that my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on the earth.
The Book of Joby Chapter 19:25
10 Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted in the earth.
The Book of Psalms Chapter 46:10
10 But the Lord is the God of truth: He is the living God, and an everlasting King: at His anger the earth shall tremble, and the nations cannot abide His wrath.
The Book of Jeremiah Chapter 10:10
16 Then Simon Peter answered, and said, Thou art that Christ, the son of the living God
The Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 16:16
69 And we believe and know that thou art that Christ that Son of the living God.
The Gospel According to John Chapter 6:69
3 In that ye are manifest, to be the Epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.
The Second Epistle to the Corinthians Chapter 3:3
Read One Psalm a Day
Psalm Eighty Seven
1 God laid his foundations among the holy
mountains.
2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion above all
the habitations of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of
God. Selah.
4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babel among
them that know me: behold Palestine and Tyre with
Ethiopia, There is he born.
5 And of Zion it shall be said, Many are born in
her: and he, even the most High shall stablish her.
6 The Lord shall count, when he writeth the
people, He was born there. Selah.
7 As well the singers as the players on instruments
shall praise thee: all my springs are in thee.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Republican Government
by
William Graham Sumner
Chicago Tribune January 01 1877
I beg leave here to emphasize the distinction between a democracy and a republic because the people of the United States, living in a democratic republic, almost universally confuse the two elements of their system. Each, however, must stand or fall by itself. Louis Napoleon gave the French democracy, under his own despotism.
If the principle of equality is what we aim at we can probably get it — we can all be equally slaves together. If we want majority rule, we can have it — the majority can pass a plébiscite conferring permanent power on a despot. A republic is quite another thing. It is a form of self-government, and its first aim is not equality but civil liberty. It keeps the people active in public functions and public duties; it requires their activity at stated periods when the power of the state has to be re-conferred on new agents. It breaks the continuity of power to guard against its abuse, and it abhors as much the irresponsible power of the many as of the one. It surrounds the individual with safeguards by its permanent constitutional provisions, and by no means leaves the individual or the state a prey to the determination of a numerical majority. In our system the guarantees to liberty and the practical machinery of self-government all come from the constitutional republic; the dangers chiefly from democracy. Democracy teaches dogmas of absolute and sweeping application, while, in truth, there are no absolute doctrines in politics. Its spirit is fierce, intolerant, and despotic. It frets and chafes at constitutional restraints which seem to balk the people of its will and it threatens all institutions, precedents, and traditions which, for the moment, stand in the way. When the future historian comes to critizise our time, he will probably say that it was marked by a great tendency toward democratic equality. He will perhaps have to mention more than one nation which, in chasing this chimaera, lost liberty.
Government by interests produces no statesmen, but only attorneys.
It is evident that the republican system, especially in a democratic republic, demands on the part of the citizen extraordinary independence, power to resist false appeals and fallacies, sound and original judgment, far-sighted patriotism, and patient reflection...this is plainly impossible unless he is well informed as to some great principles of political science, knows something of history and of experiments made elsewhere, and also understands the great principles of civil liberty...that he will exercise his political power conscientiously and faithfully... the citizen will sacrifice time, interest, and attention, in no slight degree, to his public duty. In short, it comes to this: the franchise is a prerogative act; it is the act of a sovereign; it is performed without any responsibility whatever except responsibility to one's judgment and one's own conscience. And furthermore, although we are fond of boasting that every citizen is a sovereign, let us not forget that if every one is a sovereign every one is also a subject. The citizen must know how to obey before he is fit to command, and the only man who is fit to help govern the community is the man who can govern himself.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
William Graham Sumner - 1883
The discussion of "the relations of labor and capital" has not hitherto been very fruitful. It has been confused by ambiguous definitions, and it has been based upon assumptions about the rights and duties of social classes which are, to say the least, open to serious question as regards their truth and justice. If, then, we correct and limit the definitions, and if we test the assumptions, we shall find out whether there is anything to discuss about the relations of "labor and capital," and, if anything, what it is.
Let us first examine the terms.
1. Labor means properly, toil, irksome exertion, expenditure of productive energy.
2. The term is used, secondly, by a figure of speech, and in a collective sense, to designate the body of _persons_ who, having neither capital nor land, come into the industrial organization offering productive services in exchange for means of subsistence. These persons are united by community of interest into a group, or class, or interest, and, when interests come to be adjusted, the interests of this group will undoubtedly be limited by those of other groups.
3. The term labor is used, thirdly, in a more restricted, very popular and current, but very ill-defined way, to designate a limited sub-group among those who live by contributing productive efforts to the work of society. Every one is a laborer who is not a person of leisure. Public men, or other workers, if any, who labor but receive no pay, might be excluded from the category, and we should immediately pass, by such a restriction, from a broad and philosophical to a technical definition of the labor class. But merchants, bankers, professional men, and all whose labor is, to an important degree, mental as well as manual, are excluded from this third use of the term labor. The result is, that the word is used, in a sense at once loosely popular and strictly technical, to designate a group of laborers who separate their interests from those of other laborers. Whether farmers are included under "labor" in this third sense or not I have not been able to determine. It seems that they are or are not, as the interest of the disputants may require.
1. Capital is any product of labor which is used to assist production.
2. This term also is used, by a figure of speech, and in a collective sense, for the persons who possess capital, and who come into the industrial organization to get their living by using capital for profit. To do this they need to exchange capital for productive services. These persons constitute an interest, group, or class, although they are not united by any such community of interest as laborers, and, in the adjustment of interests, the interests of the owners of capital must be limited by the interests of other groups.
3. Capital, however, is also used in a vague and popular sense which it is hard to define. In general it is used, and in this sense, to mean employers of laborers, but it seems to be restricted to those who are employers on a large scale. It does not seem to include those who employ only domestic servants. Those also are excluded who own capital and lend it, but do not directly employ people to use it.
It is evident that if we take for discussion "capital and labor," if each of the terms has three definitions, and if one definition of each is loose and doubtful, we have everything prepared for a discussion which shall be interminable and fruitless, which shall offer every attraction to undisciplined thinkers, and repel everybody else.
The real collision of interest, which is the centre of the dispute, is that of employers and employed; and the first condition of successful study of the question, or of successful investigation to see if there is any question, is to throw aside the technical economic terms, and to look at the subject in its true meaning, expressed in untechnical language. We will use the terms "capital" and "labor" only in their strict economic significance, viz., the first definition given above under each term, and we will use the terms "laborers" and "capitalists" when we mean the persons described in the second definition under each term.
It is a common assertion that the interests of employers and employed are identical, that they are partners in an enterprise, etc. These sayings spring from a disposition, which may often be noticed, to find consoling and encouraging observations in the facts of sociology, and to refute, if possible, any unpleasant observations. If we try to learn what is true, we shall both do what is alone right, and we shall do the best for ourselves in the end. The interests of employers and employed as parties to a contract are antagonistic in certain respects and united in others, as in the case wherever supply and demand operate. If John gives cloth to James in exchange for wheat, John's interest is that cloth be good and attractive but not plentiful, but that wheat be good and plentiful; James' interest is that wheat be good and attractive but not plentiful, but that cloth be good and plentiful. All men have a common interest that all things be good, and that all things but the one which each produces be plentiful. The employer is interested that capital be good but rare, and productive energy good and plentiful; the employe is interested that capital be good and plentiful, but that productive energy be good and rare. When one man alone can do a service, and he can do it very well, he represents the laborer's ideal. To say that employers and employed are partners in an enterprise is only a delusive figure of speech. It is plainly based on no facts in the industrial system.
Employers and employed make contracts on the best terms which they can agree upon, like buyers and sellers, renters and hirers, borrowers and lenders. Their relations are, therefore, controlled by the universal law of supply and demand. The employer assumes the direction of the business, and takes all the risk, for the capital must be consumed in the industrial process, and whether it will be found again in the product or not depends upon the good judgment and foresight with which the capital and labor have been applied. Under the wages system the employer and the employé contract for time. The employé fulfills the contract if he obeys orders during the time, and treats the capital as he is told to treat it. Hence he is free from all responsibility, risk, and speculation. That this is the most advantageous arrangement for him, on the whole and in the great majority of cases, is very certain. Salaried men and wage-receivers are in precisely the same circumstances, except that the former, by custom and usage, are those who have special skill or training, which is almost always an investment of capital, and which narrows the range of competition in their case. Physicians, lawyers, and others paid by fees are workers by the piece. To the capital in existence all must come for their subsistence and their tools.
Friday, July 13, 2012
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
William Graham Sumner - 1883
Capital is only formed by self-denial, and if the possession of it did not secure advantages and superiorities of a high order men would never submit to what is necessary to get it. The first accumulation costs by far the most, and the rate of increase by profits at first seems pitiful. Among the metaphors which partially illustrate capital--all of which, however, are imperfect and inadequate--the snow-ball is useful to show some facts about capital. Its first accumulation is slow, but as it proceeds the accumulation becomes rapid in a high ratio, and the element of self-denial declines. This fact, also, is favorable to the accumulation of capital, for if the self-denial continued to be as great per unit when the accumulation had become great, there would speedily come a point at which further accumulation would not pay. The man who has capital has secured his future, won leisure which he can employ in winning secondary objects of necessity and advantage, and emancipated himself from those things in life which are gross and belittling. The possession of capital is, therefore, an indispensable prerequisite of educational, scientific, and moral goods. This is not saying that a man in the narrowest circumstances may not be a good man. It is saying that the extension and elevation of all the moral and metaphysical interests of the race are conditioned on that extension of civilization of which capital is the prerequisite, and that he who has capital can participate in and move along with the highest developments of his time. Hence it appears that the man who has his self-denial before him, however good may be his intention, cannot be as the man who has his self-denial behind him. Some seem to think that this is very unjust, but they get their notions of justice from some occult source of inspiration, not from observing the facts of this world as it has been made and exists.
The maxim, or injunction, to which a study of capital leads us is; get capital. In a community where the standard of living is high, and the conditions of production are favorable, there is a wide margin within which an individual may practice self-denial and win capital without suffering, if he has not the charge of a family. That it requires energy, courage, perseverance, and prudence is not to be denied. Any one who believes that any good thing on this earth can be got without those virtues may believe in the philosopher's stone or the fountain of youth. If there were any Utopia its inhabitants would certainly be very insipid and characterless.
No instance has yet been seen of a society composed of a class of great capitalists and a class of laborers who had fallen into a caste of permanent drudges. Probably no such thing is possible, so long as society continues to develop strong classes of merchants, financiers, professional men, and other classes. If it were conceivable that non capitalist laborers should give up struggling to become capitalists, should give way to vulgar enjoyments and passions, should recklessly increase their numbers, and should become a permanent caste, they might with some justice be called proletarians. The name has been adopted by some professed labor leaders, but it really should be considered insulting. If there were such a proletariat it would be [mired] hopelessly in the hands of a body of plutocratic capitalists, and a society so organized would, no doubt, be far worse than a society composed only of nobles and serfs, which is the worst society the world has seen in modern times.
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