Like I said in the last posting,
harboring “private” sin is bad, and eventually it’s going to harm you and those
around you in concentric circles. Like ripples in a pond when a stone is dropped
into it, your sin has an effect on the world, just like mine does. But one of
the signs of sickness in a man or society’s soul is that he (it) doesn’t bother
to hide sin and instead celebrates it publicly and tries to encourage others to
indulge.
Theft, or more precisely a contempt
for the 8th Commandment, is not only indulged in by people in our
society (as in every society) but flouting it is celebrated publicly. And I think
that’s a problem.
How is it celebrated? Well, today we’ll
discuss one such expression of this: Apparently your right to own property is
based upon how much wealth you already have. The more you have, the more acceptable it is to steal it from you.
What
do I mean by this?
Let’s look at the big boogeymen of
modern-day society: CEO’s of private corporations. People seem to find it
perfectly acceptable to say that CEO’s make too much money, especially in
comparison with those on the bottom of the Totem Pole. They say that the income
gap between a CEO used to be X times
what the janitor made thirty years ago, and now it’s 20 times X what the janitor makes.
As I’ve tried
to make the case earlier, the idea that God is concerned in the slightest with
income disparity is found nowhere
in Scripture. If Bill Gates or some billionaire makes 1000 times in a day
what I make in 10 years, how does that
hurt me in the slightest?
But here’s where I need to really
let loose some tough love. If a company’s stock holders decide to pay a CEO a
certain amount, how is that your business, either literally or figuratively?
The Board of Directors, acting as representatives of the stock holders, oversees
the CEO. His salary is based on the contract that he signed with them. The stock holders own that company. If you
think he’s making too much money, then buy some stock so you have a voice in
how that company’s run.
BTW, as I found out by reading The
Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, much of the time a CEO has a
set salary based on the employment contract, not based on how well the company
does. It's much like a contract a company has with an advertising agency. If the
agency has a really successful ad campaign, the money paid to the agency is
still the same. If the ad falls flat on its face, the company still has to pay
the ad company what it agreed to. That’s why you see CEO’s who get huge bonuses
even when the company fails: That’s what’s in the contract. Now, maybe you
disagree with the way the system works. That’s fine. Then start your own company,
which you own, and you can set the rules however you like within the boundaries
of the law. But quite frankly it really irks me when I hear people who don’t own stock in a company, and who’ve never run a
multi-million-dollar company think they know what a CEO ought to be paid. You’re not the one paying his salary. You don't have any voice, nor should you, in how much he/she is getting paid.
You can also see this in how some people
seem to think that stealing from a huge corporation is fine, but stealing from
an individual, especially a poor person, is bad. They have absolutely no idea
how big companies make our standard of living possible. Unless you’re highly unusual, there are probably very
few objects or services in your life which aren’t brought to you by a huge
corporation or company. The lights in your house? The running water? The
computer you’re typing on? The car you drive? The gas in your tank? The food in
your fridge? The electricity that powers your fridge and everything else in
your house? It’s extremely likely that everything I just named was manufactured and
brought to you by a huge corporation or company. Your quality of life is made
possible by these big evil companies and corporations.
How’s about stealing intellectual
property? Younger people think that it’s perfectly fine to steal music and
movies from rich and famous musicians and actors. They download stuff without
paying for it and don’t think once about it, much less twice. They’d likely
feel it’s less acceptable if the object of their theft is a band that’s just
starting up or an entrepreneur who’s just started his own business, but if they’re
stealing from a multi-million dollar music company or movie studio, then it’s
apparently OK.
People sometimes love to justify theft
by talking about “greedy” companies and CEO’s. The problem is that apparently
they define “greed” as somehow different from what they practice every day of
their lives. Tell me something: Do you
look for the best value at the lowest possible price? Do you shop around and give someone your patronage based on that
standard? Then why is it wrong for a company to do the exact same thing? If a
company can hire A) someone for $8 an hour or B) another person for $12 an hour
to do the exact same work and provide the same amount of income into the company, then whom do you expect
them to hire? Don’t you do the same thing, in every single business transaction
you engage in, multiple times per day?
“Oh, but they’re already rich, so it’s
OK to steal from them.” Spoken or unspoken, the principle seems to be that the rules ought to be different for rich people vs. poor people. Well, maybe that’s how you feel, but that’s not what the Bible
tells us. Here’s what Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
specifically told the Israelites:
Do
not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do
not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a
poor person in a lawsuit.
Do
not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the
great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
Dennis Prager put it so well: In the
“micro” areas of life—in our personal relationships--we need to show kindness,
compassion, mercy, and love, just like the Lord’s shown us, especially towards
the poor and those who’re downtrodden or in need. But in the “macro”—as far as government
(which enforces such things as property rights) is concerned—the keys words are
impartiality, justice, and truth. What do the facts and the law say?
Stealing is stealing is stealing.
The Commandment says “You shall not steal.” It doesn’t have an asterisk, and it doesn't say “You shall not
steal. . .unless the guy’s rich,” or “. . .unless you think he’s made too much
money," or ". . .unless you don't like the guy."
Yes, there are lots of things more
important than money or other types of wealth. As our Savior (who voluntarily came from a
pretty lower-class background) put
it: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not
consist in an abundance of possessions.” Some other time we might get into
trying to nail down exactly what “greed” means.
But that’s entirely irrelevant to our discussion at hand. My thesis is that our society, influenced by Leftist thought, has bought into the notion that some forms of theft are perfectly acceptable. The further on the Left you get, the less and less you value the importance of property rights, at least the rights of those people you don't happen to like. I feel the need to point out again: The Eighth Commandment has no asterisks or caveats.
But that’s entirely irrelevant to our discussion at hand. My thesis is that our society, influenced by Leftist thought, has bought into the notion that some forms of theft are perfectly acceptable. The further on the Left you get, the less and less you value the importance of property rights, at least the rights of those people you don't happen to like. I feel the need to point out again: The Eighth Commandment has no asterisks or caveats.
Let’s talk about our popular culture
in the next posting.
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