I’m not a fan of big government or bloated bureaucracies. Under most circumstances I wouldn’t be in favor of the Affordable Care Act (even the President calls it Obamacare) but the latest revelation seems to be the worst part of all.
Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, testified before congress this week that the ACA could cost more than two million jobs. How our fragile economy will survive the loss of two million more jobs is beyond comprehension. You would think that our elected leaders would do everything in their power to create more jobs rather than destroying those we already have.
The loss of two million jobs is catastrophic; the other major testimony of the director is even worse. He said the Affordable Care Act will be a disincentive for many people to work. “By providing heavily subsidized health insurance to people with very low income and then withdrawing those subsidies as income rises, the act creates a disincentive to work.”
To me, this is the worst part of Obamacare.
In Scripture work is good and of God. Before sin entered the world, God placed the man and woman in His good creation and tasked them with tilling and keeping the garden. Before sin, there was work.
Work is satisfying and meaningful. It gives us a sense of accomplishment and significance. You might say that our work is one way we identify with our creator. God works and we work. When His critics denounced Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath day, He pointed out that He and His Father work.
In the New Testament, Paul called on the Ephesian believers to do honest work for the purpose of helping those in need. Paying our taxes for the greater good of society is a good thing, but encouraging people not to work is very bad. Paul laid his teaching before the church: “If you are a thief, quit stealing. Be honest and work hard, so that you will have something to give to people in need” (Ephesians 4:28).
What should we do? Do your work quietly and to the best of your ability. Pay fair wages, and do more than you are required. Save and give. Look for ways to make money and ways to be generous.
I love the admonition of John Wesley: “Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”
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7 Responses
Thank you. Truth.
Yes Jim it is truth. And such a profound truth. It continues to amaze me how such a profound truth seems to just slip away and our leaders we elect and place in office do nothing about it. I know they see and realize this but none ban together to correct it.
I keep reminding myself of Daniel 2:21. God sets up kings, and he also replaces them. My prayer is for God to give us a replacement and help us to continue faithful in our work, labors, faith, trust, and testimony…
Thanks for this great opinion piece. It is very informative.
How love how it conicides with the fact check below.
http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2014/feb/07/eric-cantor/cantor-says-cbo-predicts-obamacare-will-cause-mill/
Finding that many know the Truth, but there is no political will to act, is not new to me. Truth in this time is no different than any other time in the history of this world. It often is shaped by popularity, by committee, by the one who survives. God has decided to work through His creation. His Truth shall stand because of Who He is. Interesting how His pick their battles and the front line shifts. Free to Live, free to die daily in Christ; either way I’m Free. How about you? How much larceny can you tolerate? The story has been told. It is not “a short fictional work.” It has been hard work. It is the Work of His. Adieu.
Blessings
While I agree with you about big government, there is a question, an issue, about employment. The question is this: Where are the jobs, when they no longer need workers? In ’90 o ’91, I was working as a counselor in a Senior High School with some 1800 students, when the vocational director of the county school system asked me to write an evaluation of some papers she had from a conference on jobs in the future. Basically, I summed up the papers by saying there were no jobs for our children in the future. Why? Because of computerization, robotics, and automation. Even 24-25 years ago, the problems were becoming apparent. The number one employer outside the government at that time, if memory serves correctly, was fast foods. The workers striking for better pay today are understandable. They need more money to provide for their basic needs in this economy. However, in the late 80s in a burger King in a city in New York, the local establishment which employed some 400 people and ran 24/7 automated. It hired a lazar cooker operator from Germany for $90/hr. and a female assistant from Japan for $60/hr. The rest of the crew consisted of some 18 people; their task was cleanup. Effectively, automation put some 380 people out of their jobs. There were other stories like that.
One can look at the assembly lines for cars on the news. They show fly robotic arms and very few workers. In fact, they can reduce the whole force to a few technicians to keep the machines running (which they did in two plants in Japan which they closed down due to the fact that it put too many people out of work. A recent article in the Raleigh News & Observer showed a textile plant that had come back to the states from overseas. The machines in the pictures were several city blocks in length, and there were only a few workers tending them. Virtually, every job is subject to automation, robotics, and computerization. Even education can be done by computers in the home, leaving the schools and buildings and many teachers without jobs. What now?
The socioeconomic gap continues to widen. Thanks for pointing out the disconnect Dr. I had calculated pre 2000 a loss of GDP of over a trillion dollars (1.2) due to the loss of family businesses impacted by the combination of medical discoveries and the legal system bankrupting businesses. The USA Government/people turned their back on citizens that served their country and or communities (us & and I am one) in good faith and then were destroyed or damaged by a failed system. Production was replaced by imports; jobs were exported. We as a country ignored leadership from men like Dr. Michael Debakey. God Provided. However, our leadership choose short term and instant gratification, greed. Truth? What’s changed? Interesting! Pointing to the hereafter, cloaking the issues of the present, is not what the Model Prayer illustrates.