As much as I loathe and despise what the current administration is doing to our economy, and as much as I reject the flowering fascism that is unfolding every evening on the news, let us not fall for hackneyed talking points from what is purported to be the other side. Obama is now in the process of appointing a “pay czar,” a honcho in charge of settling appropriate executive compensation for companies that have taken federal largesse. It is limited to those recipients currently but, you know, tomorrow the world.
The talking point against this is that if we set legal caps on executive compensation, our companies would no longer be able to attract “top talent” and, as we all know, they need “top talent.” Top talent, for those just joining us, is the phrase used to describe all those private sector execs who drove the national economy off the cliff back before Obama had thrown away his first trillion. When companies hand out executive bonuses independent of the company’s actual performance, they are demonstrating that human lunacy and greed are not limited to the public sector. They are not attracting top talent that way, but rather the top mountebanks. Let’s consolidate them all these companies, and call the results First Federal MounteBank. We must remember that scum on a pond always floats on the very top.
And another thing. A bunch of big private banks yesterday returned billions of the TARP money, and some people are talking about this as though it were an act of private sector principle. But stare at this straight on for a minute. What this means that that a significant cluster of banks had taken billions that they did not need. They did it because they thought there would be no strings, that they would be getting some free money in large piles. When the strings were attached right away (instead of in an invisible tomorrow, as is usual), they returned the money, revealing to anybody who cares that they are as corrupt as anybody on the Eastern Seaboard, and that is saying something.
So the next point cannot be repeated often enough. Defenders of free markets are not to thought of as automatic defenders of big business, little business, or business in between. Some businesses are smart, some are courageous, some are corrupt, some are incompetent, some want the government to destroy their competition, and all are made up of fallen human beings who are not the lords of finance. Jesus is the Lord of finance. Jesus is Lord, and He is the only Lord.
So at that fundamental level, trusting the government as the lord of finance is idolatry. Trusting tycoons as lords of finance is idolatry. Trusting top talent is idolatry, and stupid to boot. Trusting the arm of the flesh is not something Christians are permitted to do.
But trusting the markets is not the same thing. That is not trusting any fallen man; such a trust can only be sustained through trust in God. Trusting free markets is trusting providence. When we try to rig the markets to our own benefit, we are always trying to grab the steering wheel of economic providence. We can no more do that than we can grab and direct any other aspect of providence. As Nebuchadnezzar once pointed out, our arms are too short to reach and grab God’s wrists in order to stay and prevent what He is doing.
We are Christians. We trust in Jesus Christ. We may not fight Him, and we may not try to replace Him. Socialism is not just folly, although it is that, it is also blasphemy. Ye shall be as God, the serpent hissed.