Suffering and the Economy

Often after watching the evening news I am forced to ponder the behaviour of politicians here and abroad in regard to the global financial meltdown.
Are their enacted and proposed solutions viable? Will they work out in the end for those whose only hope is in pragmatism? Or will it come crashing down like a deck of cards in a tornado? a disaster much worse than what has happened in the last 16 months with the crashing global economies.
I regularly see advertisements on television by superannuation funds saying that though times are tough we must look to the long term regarding our superannuation. That it will return to the good ol times of prosperity once again. I get the same speel from my frequent supperannuation investment reports encouraging me to further invest!

Yet at present we see America spiralling into further debt that must end in dire consequences for all. They say their current debt is a mere 7 trillion dollars but the real amount of unfunded liabilites when you add their medicare and social security is closer to 100 trillion. Think of it, their economy is only a 10 trillion dollar economy and their debt at it's simplest calculated level is 7 trillion! Who could run a household and not be bankrupt on those kind of figures?

We do well to heed the words of Lawrence Reed as reported over at Wayne Israel's blog, Christianworldview.
"[The corrections introduced by Governemnt] are preventing the necessary adjustments from cleansing the economy and is putting us on a reckless path to inflation, debt and national bankruptsy."

"Government and it's unconscionable debt are spiralling out of control. This must stop or financial disaster looms."

He correctly alludes to the collaspse of character that is behind this fiscal lunacy.

I understand the positiveness of politicians in the face of financial collapse, they worry that their negative comments could send the economy further into crisis, and perhaps they do indeed operate on what Reed says is the Keynesian school of economic thought - see the above linked article, however I see overall they are failing to lead the country and act responsibly. What is required is indeed a proper level of integrity, not just pragmatism or economic rationalism which here in Australia was actually the backbone of Liberal federal government rule, but seems to be also that of Labour!

Overall, we trust our Lord and God through all crisis, but that doesn't mean we have to be uninformed or naive about possible consequences. And more importantly for Christians, is our character and that of our children being honed by our Lord to withstand the difficulties that await all due to economic failure of whole economies? We need to resist the mindset of our culture that we can have it all and we can have it now. Our mindset is that in Christ we already have all that is important.

In Christ,
Gary