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Too Early To Celebrate?
Fifty years ago, incomes in the South were 40 percent
of the national average; today incomes in the South are
80 percent of the national average.
In the past 20 years (the lifetime of the students I
teach), American capitalism has delivered the goods.
We have grown 60 percent in real terms on only 10
percent more energy. The equipment in our homes and
factories are 30 to 60 percent more efficient, vehicle
mileage is up 50 percent. Houses with central air–
conditioning have increased in number by 200 percent,
and houses themselves are 40 percent larger.
Life expectancy is 40 percent longer than in 1900.
Particulates in the air are down 60 percent, auto deaths
are down 30 percent, 30 million jobs have been added,
death from heart disease is down 40 percent. Most of
us can expect to live fairly long lives, relatively free of
pain, and die in good health (your mileage may vary).
Wow!
It
is certainly a time to celebrate. That's what
the resourceful, productive, rich man of the New
Testament did. After reaping a bountiful harvest that
exceeded his barns, he resolved (Luke 12:18,19):
This will I do: I will pull down my barns and
buildgreater; and there will bestow all my fruits
and my goods.. And I will say to my Soul, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years; take
thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
However, his circumstance was about to change
abruptly (Luke 12:20):
"But Godsaid to him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then who
shall these things be which thou hastprovided?"
Alas,
and along the way, he had forgotten a valuable lesson
-- that
''Man shall not live by bread alone but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God"
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