From my Writing Room
Copyright © 2021 by Uwe Bahr

Who is going to pay for this – for the huge Covid Relief Bill, now also called the “American Rescue Plan?” Future generations of taxpayers?

The question would not even surface if there was something in place as or similar to a Social Market Economy – if government and lawmakers acted as arbiters between society and business instead as profiteers from lobbyism. The obvious need for a more equitable distribution of burdens would not arise to that extent if the big, uncontrolled money-grubbers of this society – such as corporations, insurance companies, but also impertinent bill-dodgers like the churches – finally paid taxes and contributions in a fair way, instead of being privileged on flimsy grounds in the guise of alleged “charity”, while in reality acting at the expense and to the detriment of the American worker.*

Opponents of this thesis love to argue that in such a case the big employers like Walmart would lay off people or give up altogether. Certainly a valid assumption.

But if Walmart, the hideous anti-American monster, didn’t exist in the first place, this would in turn be a boost for innovation made in the U.S., because countless small- and medium-sized companies that were killed off by Walmart’s unpatriotic competition would come back to life and get a fair chance. Products that are labeled “Made in the USA” – how about that? – would prevail, while “Made in China” would fade into the background.

Too much utopia?

Instead, in the U.S., more than anywhere else in the modern western world, it is always the wrong people who have to foot the bill. These are not the ideas of American freedom and unlimited opportunities for everyone who works hard, but the excesses of rampant capitalism.

How can that be in a country with a Christian claim?

Notes:

*The churches in the United States are making billions of dollars year after year in interest alone, free of taxes, while on the opposite end providing merely millions for charity. The business of dulling peoples’ mind is extremely profitable: To list all the churches “benefits”, for which they pay no taxes, would require a book. – However, if someone does not pay taxes, others have to subsidize in their stead, because a state needs money. Churches are among the most voracious vultures in society.