AMERICAN PIE – AMERICAN DREAM – AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

The Chinese labourer Today is making wages that would be impossible to live on in the nominally Christian developed societies. We could live on those wages of the early 60s when we were creating the wealth in our system. This is their 1st crack at the stuff that makes up the American Pie or Dream.

Now the appetites for material want are unleashed in the 1,500,000,000 people of China.

There are Chinese millionaires and billionaires flaunting their wealth, and inevitably, the 1,500,000,000 Chinese workers will want more. That’s the way of all flesh.

As the cost for Chinese goods rise in tandem with stagnant or falling wages in the West, with increased unemployment, inevitably the Global economy as it is erected now will arrive at a tipping point.

The Chinese Leaders have a very tough job in steering the country with policies that blend the traditional Chinese Culture putting the Common Good above the individual, with American Capitalism that puts the Individual  above any notion of the Common Well being.

The world has an interest in China succeeding in this great challenge  and the world should hope they find the right way and balance so that all individuals are Free within the Greater Free Society.

God help us all if the 1,500,000,000 Chinese mirror American Capitalism as it is Today with it’s notion of the rugged individual acting independently of any notion of the Common Good.

A long time ago when wages in our system were at the level the Chinese are now earning, I was able to maintain an above average life style, definitely not rich except in Spirit, earning the above average salary of $2 an hour in Montreal when the average worker was making $1.50/hr.

Rents, Restaurants, movies and entertainment, clothing and food costs were geared to those averages. Two big brown paper bags full of groceries cost $10 compared to two little plastic bags costing $40 Today. Cigarettes cost .29c a pack and the labourers could go into a Taverne after work and get 10 – 8 oz. glasses of beer for $1. The waiter was happy with a .15c tip. A beer in a Bar cost .50c. Gas was really cheap when we measured it in gallons A gallon cost less than a litre Today. The average worker could afford to live reasonably, meeting the basic needs for their families of 2-6 children. Greed and jealousy was muted unlike these days.

The introduction of TV and insatiable want upset that balance between owners, management and labour.

The Developed Nations being a small minority of the earth’s population, have had a long head start in exploiting the earth’s resources enriching ourselves. The world’s system of unbridled consumption is unsustainable as it has been constructed. Without fundamental change, the Global economy will eventually collapse and fall on our heads.

The children will pay for the sins of the parents, especially as this generation puts off making the hard decisions and adjustments that will be necessary to ensure the continuation of the human race.
Related to this article – ‘THE KING´S TERRIFYING NIGHTMARE‘

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, that their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it.

William Jennings Bryan, July 9, 1896.

Here it is 115 years later and we are still having the same unresolved debate.

Most people don’t know what’s written between the covers of the “Good Book” a.k.a. the Bible. This gives Christian TV preachers free reign to project a vision based on few of the thousands of Bible verses, each one having an insight or perspective of the total picture of God and this world.

As much as they say you have to live by what’s written in the Bible, you will never hear the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and Christian TV preachers discuss these express words that cannot be misinterpreted for anything other than implying regime change in this world.

Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold, the HIRE OF THE LABOURERS who have reaped down your fields, which is of you KEPT BACK BY FRAUD, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
You have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; you have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned and killed the just; and he does not resist you.
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
Be patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws nigh.
Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned: behold, the judge stands before the door.
Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest you fall into condemnation.

James 5