We've kind of gone off topic.
I think we agree that the nation of America, with it's freedom's, and constitution, coupled with Protestant Christian morality was part of God's plan. I'm a firm believer in that.
It offered an era of opportunity, both for the advancement of the gospel, and for economic prosperity, rarely, if ever, seen before.
As to disagreements:
It seems (my take on Gary's responses) that he thinks America's political beginnings were all very good and Christian based.
Whereas I too believe that the Protestant Christians had considerable influence bringing a high level of morality to America's beginnings and culture, however, there were also powerful influences from the "age of reason" that was sweeping Europe and the western world at the time. Chief propagators of "age of reason" philosophy were the freemasons, a society in which quite a few of the founding fathers had membership.
In America, the revolution (which was highly driven by "age of reason" ideas) and the subsequent republican government and it's freedoms were a success BECAUSE of the heavy Protestant Christian influence.
In France the revolution, based on the same "age of reason" principles which were part of the American Revolution, resulted in a reign of terror, due to the rejection of Protestant Christianity in France, first by the Papal mandates that drove Protestantism out of the country, and withheld the bible from the people, and then by the total rejection of Bible and all Christianity during the revolution itself.
Thus what I see in this --
Now that Protestant Christianity has largely lost it's moral influence in American culture, America has lost the balance that made for success -- indeed, freedom without morality is chaos and ruin.
And we see this taking place today.
So getting back more to the topic
we stand at the verge of the entire population of the world being held as serfs to the will of a very few people who will hold almost all of the tangible wealth there is in the world. They can then say who can buy and who can sell. This is what the Bible tells us is coming. Why has it occurred? Because economic laws have been deliberately violated left and right for many years. We have been told boom-and-bust is the natural result of economic liberty, when, in fact, it is the deliberate manipulation of currencies that causes boom-and-bust and is done in the desire to take wealth away from the common man and place it in the hands of a very few people. Boom-and-bust has always transferred money away from the common man and into the hands of the few. It is done because wealth is power. And our governments are implicit in this fraud. Our politicians and media deliberately contribute to the economic lies that have led us to this point.
I agree with most of the above,
but haven't they used the freedom of capitalism to get to where they now stand holding most of the wealth in the hands of a few? They used the freedom of capitalism devoid of morality?
How did the huge monopolies develop?
I agree they were/are aided by the government.
But they used capitalistic principles to get where they are.
Seems to me they play it -- like the game "Monopoly".
At first everyone has some properties, houses, business, hotels, etc. and the game is pleasant, everyone is happy.
But before long some get richer, and start buying out the struggling ones who are trying to stay in the game by selling their properities. The rich get richer, the poor poorer, until the poor declare bankruptcy and all their holdings end up in the hands of the rich.
I see it in our little town. First time I came here the main street was bustling with little shops and business and the outlying fields had many small farmers.
What happened? Wal-Mart, and a couple other big stores pretty much put the small businesses out of business. The small farmers sold out to the richer farmers. Small farming doesn't pay anymore.
Large corporations are concentrating control over markets, controlling prices, forcing out small business. Monopolies cause inequality.
So, while I don't believe in socialism, and definitely do not think its the answer (and I agree with you that there is a movement pushing heavily to bring that in and make all dependent on the state)
Still
it seems government should put a lid on the development of monopolies, which used the principles of capitalism to become monopolies, and bring America back into a more "early style" of capitalism?
Of particular concern is the monopoly Monsanto is getting on crop seeds.
But would you consider that "manipulating" the economic situation?