March 7, 2009 - Work Party

After making a dozen phone calls this morning to successfully recruit a vounteer work party for our church remodel, I was feeling pretty good about our work ethic in this country. Then I read the following quote forwarded by my uncle:
Quote of the Day The late Dr. Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) offered the following
observation several years ago and it bears poignant significance
today: "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the rich
out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person
must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody
anything the government does not first take from somebody else
. When
half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other
half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that
it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work
for, that my dear friend is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply the
wealth by dividing it."
We cannot depress the incentive to work without truly pushing this country into a depression. While I fundamentally disagree with Ayn Rand on the subject of God (she was an ardent atheist, I am an evangelical Christian), she had a few things right when she wrote "Atlas Shrugged." The entrepreneurs, farmers and business owners of this country don't have to create wealth and jobs, we can shrug it off and just look after our own. If we lose the engines of real job creation, not government job creation, then government will collapse. We are losing our balance. We need a new Work Party to pull us back on track. Where is John Galt?