The Economics of Sacrifice

Value is subjective to the will of each individual person. However, the scarcity of a product or service might be a real factor in determining its price (value). Because it is scarce, it may be worth more. It is natural for society today to think about paper money when they hear prices, banks, savings, economy, costs, etc. Although paper money is not the only thing that can be used for trade, but it is collectively the most marketable commodity. Therefore, paper money, even though it is practically backed up or based on debt and thin air, not gold or silver, is very valuable to the hearts and minds of people. In other words, paper money has no real value, but illusive and subjective value that only exists in a way of thinking, but not in something that can be exchanged if paper money didn’t exist, like gold. Even though money is by no means scarce and worth something real, it is practically the most valuable thing that almost all people treasure. The love of money is the root of all evils.

Understanding the latter, we might acknowledge that when you have money you can practically obtain any physical thing and service whenever you want and at any price. We realize, then, that people are easy to control when you use the voice of money because money conveys authority. If you have the money, they have the time. It is as simple as that. Hence, money controls the decisions and thus the will of people. Something perishable controls an eternal spiritual being with a soul inside a body, also known as a human. You see, your earthly home, the body, is the only thing that dies, but you, a spirit and a soul, don’t. That is to say that if money controls our body and these two control our soul which in the end controls our spirit, instead of it being all the way around, we are far away from an eternal mentality.

This takes me to conclude that people who are focused in just this world are easily controlled by money. An example of that would be someone offering you this, “kiss the floor and I’ll give you a dime.” You say, “no”. They say, “Kiss the floor and I’ll give you 100 dollars.” That is when you start thinking about doing it. “100 dollars covers the monthly bills and I could still buy something to eat… Just for kissing the floor, that’s a bargain.” Maybe you, dear reader, wouldn’t do it, because you value your integrity more, but I bet there are lots of people that would do it. This answers the question why drug dealing is such an effective and lucrative illegal business that hires those commissioned by the government to work against them. You just give them a price, a million dollars or your life. They come to an agreement by oath or contract and done.

Things are alright when you are the one whose got the money, but when things turn the other way, that is when we are tested how much money truly controls us. And to be quite honest, today money is in reality truly owned by central banks, they choose when there can be an economic boom and when there can be a recession all the way to a depression, of course only affecting those who are controlled by money. They own the money because they create it and it is with their creation that we bid with in today’s economy. Yet things get more interesting when we get rid of paper money and restore gold as the most marketable commodity. Perhaps we won’t be controlled by self interested bank owners with egocentric plans, but we will still be controlled by the voice of money. It will be our lord helping us or practically forcing us to make economic decisions based upon its voice. That is the crude reality.

Knowing this I will now expose you to an eternal mentality. I guarantee it will make you feel uncomfortable if the voice of money (perishable voice) is the source of your economic structures. Before I continue, I want you to know that I don’t write of this as if it were a philosophy, a mere world view, a religion, or something similar, but as a reality that, whether we admit it or not, influences our daily lives. I know some might say that I am saying it too literal, and yes I am because, like I said, it is a reality. If we follow these principles we will be the most free and prosperous people on earth, all it takes is courage, faith, and love. In the end you will understand why I don’t prefer either “first come, first served” or “high bid wins” in the areas of my life.

Would you place a known thief as your economic steward or treasurer? Perhaps you think this is a stupid question and it might be to some, but your answer determines what voice you are listening to when it comes to economic decisions, the one of money or the one that comes from love. However, I know of a man in history that made history and did this defeating all the systems of this world, meaning that he was never controlled by any because he did not listen to a perishable voice. Jesus Christ placed Judas Iscariot, a thief, as the administrator of all the money Jesus received. The monetary system used in His time were gold and silver coins and yet He said to not trust in money and not listen to its voice. He listened to the voice of the Father and multiplied 5 pieces of bread and 2 pieces of fish to feed thousands, money didn’t control Him. He told Peter to fish out a fish that contained the money to pay for the taxes of the temple. By the way asking a rabi to pay taxes was a despicable insult that did not acknowledge He was a teacher. Even so, He paid for Peter and for Himself by fishing out a fish which had the money.

But why was He able to do this? What made Him special? Yes, He was the son of God, but He was also the son of Man and the second Adam. This means He was just as propense to falling in sin as the first Adam did. For this reason He was tempted in the desert. Notwithstanding, He was able to listen to the voice of the Father, the voice of love. Jesus did not take and He did not keep, He gave. Through giving He was victorious over everything and through this love He transcended time, space, and all limits. Nothing controlled Him, not even ego because He detached from everything in order to give His life and manifest the power and all the miracles. Rejection did not control Him, He died for love of those who rejected Him and even called Judas “friend”, right before he betrayed Him. Jesus knew who Judas was and what he was going to do, yet He still called him “friend”.

What I am saying is that Jesus was the man with the greatest freedom ever, then the primitive church followed this freedom after the Spirit fell upon all flesh. Jesus conquered freedom not by beating the system through bargaining, negotiating, or whatever, but by giving. That is how He acquired liberty and established that true freedom is obtained. The primitive church walked after this. When Peter and John were going to pray, they saw a man who couldn’t walk asking for money. Peter told him that he didn’t have gold or silver, but that he gave the man what he had and healed him. There was no needy in the primitive church. All those that had faith would sell their goods and place the money at the disposal to all those within the believers that needed things. Therefore all need was supplied through giving. This is one of the reasons they wanted to kill them, because they did not live under the systems of the world and through their preaching they were taking people to get out of them. These are the economics of the sacrifice of Jesus. If we give and detach ourselves from all that is perishable, we will be people that transcend time and space and we will make history. Nothing and no one will be able to control us. Give and you shall receive.

This is why I prefer giving because of love more than, “high bid wins” and “first come, first served”.

Note: Click here to read a little more about high bid wins and first come, first served.

Tax-Supported

What easier way is there to pay than getting someone else to do it for you? Because the voice of money is quite deafening, the majority of people would hardly say no to a proposal that brings great comfort. As a matter of fact when you combine the voice of money with the voice of ego, it becomes extremely difficult for someone to give a “no” for an answer to something free (which really just means someone else paid for it). The heart of the matter is that nothing in this universe is truly free, everything has or had a cost and a price. This means that to get some resources you inevitably have to exchange others. Being blunt, sometimes people “give free resources” or pay for you in exchange of your freedom. In other words, getting something for free sounds beautiful at first, but it has terrible consequences upon others and upon you.

Allow me to explain. When someone else (known or unknown) pays for you, normally people will feel compelled to like or have some sort of appreciation for that someone. You will want to give them back the favor as long as it suits your resources. When you give them back the favor, a weight will be lifted off your shoulders. However, if that someone continues to pay for you in overwhelming ways, you will ultimately and definitely be surpassed. Here you will have two choices, continue to receive the money and pay back the favor by becoming a servant of such someone or stop receiving the “free resources” and begin working to pay them yourself. Here is where greed and the lack of desire to work influence ones decisions.

Let’s say you continue to receive the resources and the someone paying for you makes a contract with you. Suppose they are giving you resources to pay for the food of your restaurant. However, they are vegan and thus tell you that if you still want to receive the money to buy your food and make your own profit, you have to stop selling real meat and sell soy meat. You don’t think it’s a big deal and you do it only losing about 25% of your old customers, but gaining new richer ones because your giver invites his friends to eat at your restaurant. Yet, when they are eating at your restaurant, it turns out that one of them doesn’t like one of your waiters face and squeaky voice. Therefore your giver tells you to fire him and hire someone prettier with a deeper voice if you still want his friends to come over. You do it.

This is what happens when you have a welfare state that funds other people’s resources. They will in the end have the authority to call the tune of your piper because money conveyed such authority. In tax-funded schools the state is the one that provides the building, the desks, the food, the books, and the curriculum. Here they have the final call in deciding how practically everything in the student’s environment must occur. They control the knowledge the student can or cannot receive. This ultimately means that the state will use its power to create a knowldge that ends up favoring it. Tax-funded schools are therefore bureaucratized, meaning that they are state-taught, state-controlled, and state-favored. The teachers and the students do not have the freedom to teach and learn what they prefer, but what the state forces them, although they still receive everything for “free”.

The people might ask, how is it possible for the state to control what we learn if we paid it in the first place with our taxed money? The truth is that taxing is obligatory and the state is the one that decides how much will be taxed and who will be taxed. The instant you involuntarily place your money in the hands of the state, you lose control over it. You have no idea where that amount you gave will end and how it will be used. You also have no idea if the money you gave will be given to something you need, want or even support. What if the taxed money is being handled by politicians you did not even want in the office in the first place? So yes, taxed money is not in control or owned anymore by you, but by the state. That is the crude reality.

Money governed by the state will be used by the state as it may or may not of right do and it will control all of the people it gives money to. Hence, in principle a tax-funded church is no different than a tax-funded school. The sate will control the teachings in both to favor the state. And personally I believe that those (the state) who taxed money -taken coercively from other people- to use for their interests lack integrity and do not deserve honor. Worst than these people are those (state subsidized / tax-funded) who receive the money from the sate to not pay for what they owe. What type of church that supposedly trusts in God teaches to trust in plunder and what type of education are we allowing our children to receive by being bureaucratized? Begin by paying for the piper to call the tune.