Socialism Doesn’t Work, But People Keep Trying It
It has been repeatedly proven that socialism is the worst form of government that mankind has ever devised. The Soviet Union tried for decades to create the worker’s paradise. It floundered because socialism thrives on the sins of greed, envy, and laziness. When you have the government handing you the fruit of other people’s labor, there is no need for you to be a productive member of society.
The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, realized the error of socialism when he made a trip to Florida. Gorbachev went into a supermarket and he was shocked by all the food available on the shelves. He was particularly amazed at the variety of puddings. In the USSR, people were generally forced to buy whatever limited items were available at the time.
Even a nation with a wealth of resources can still be hampered by socialism. South Africa has been blessed with many mineral deposits. In 1975 it produced 75 percent of the world’s annual production of gold. Today, it only produces about 7 percent of the world’s gold.
The problem is not that all the gold in South Africa has been mined; the U.S. Geological Survey estimated in that South Africa holds about 40 percent of the world’s gold resources. With 90 percent of the world’s platinum resources, South Africa has precious metal deposits that are worth nearly $3 trillion.
The key reason for the steep decline in South Africa’s gold production has been political. When blacks took over the white-dominated apartheid government, they viewed the wealthy white mining magnates as exploiters of poor black laborers. The Johannesburg government has placed so many taxes, ownership restrictions and wage controls on mines, that there have been very few new investments.
It can take up to 10 years of development before a mine is ready to go into production. To justify the risk, a mining company needs strong assurances that its investment is not going to vanish overnight. There are elements in the ruling African National Congress that are calling for outright nationalization of mining firms
Venezuela is another nation rich in resources, yet poor because of its socialist ideology. According to OPEC’s 2015 figures, Venezuela has the most proven crude oil reserves in the world, with over 300 billion barrels. That puts it ahead of Saudi Arabia (266 billion barrels), Iran (158 billion barrels) and Iraq (142 billion barrels).
The liberal media blame Venezuela’s economic problems decline on the price of oil. The price slump cannot explain why the nation is in a total economic meltdown. The inflation rate, according to the IMF, will balloon to 720 percent this year. Food shortages have the people of Venezuela starving. Three out of four individuals surveyed reported an involuntary weight loss last year. Hospitals have completely broken down.
The impoverishment of Venezuela is the result of its leftist government using the nation’s oil industry as its own piggy bank. Immediately after the state kicked foreign oil firms out of the country, the production of oil began to decline going from 3.1 million barrels per day to 1.7 million barrels per day. The government was so eager to bribe the general population with cheap subsidies, it caused the nation’s oil industry to implode from a lack of reinvestments.
The lessons of South Africa and Venezuela are not reaching the ballot boxes in other countries. People are voting for candidates that promise the most financial handouts. Great Britain just had an election where the party of Jeremy Corbyn gained several seats.
A couple of years ago, Corbyn was being pressured to resign because of anti-Semitism in the Labor party ranks. He has made a comeback by promising goodies to younger voters. Last week Corbyn made a bold proposal to seize the empty homes of the rich to house the survivors of the devastating fire at London’s Grenfell Tower apartment complex. The insane Marxist comment was reported by the press with little criticism.
Here in America, we are headed for a socialized medical system because no party wants to restore a true capitalist market that would drive down costs. Our leaders would rather avoid the short term pain and instead have the government (taxpayers) fund our ballooning medical expenses.
Margaret Thatcher gave one of the most concise assessments of why socialism cannot work: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” With tax rates near 70 percent for some people, the end of road must be very near.
It is very likely that the Antichrist will be the king of socialists. He will have a global population worshipping at his feet because he will be handing out spoils like no other world leader. His first task may be to plunder all the bank accounts of all the missing Christians.
“He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province; and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers: he shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches; and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time” (Daniel 11:24).
–Todd
The Trump Testimony
First I must preface this week’s commentary. Those who have read my articles and books over many years–I prayerfully hope–know that I am not one who speculates wildly on what God’s Word has to say on any matter. The Lord knows that my overwhelming desire is to say no more and no less than what He wants me to say in any given instance.
Likewise, discernment is among the most important things that must be possessed by as well as employed by any writer who endeavors to put forth what the Holy Spirit urges him or her to write. More specifically, it is imperative that truth from the mind of God be at the center of each and every biblical examination and analysis exploring the issues and events of our times. My prayer is that I never violate this rubric.
With that said, I want to consider a most unusual matter involving the all but totally unexpected rise to presidential power of Donald J. Trump. I say “all but totally unexpected” because there were hundreds of thousands of us–if not millions–who knew the 2016 presidential election could well go in the direction opposite of what the politicos and pundits were saying. We knew that 2 Chronicles 7:14 was still in effect. The Lord could, if it was within His holy will, turn America in a different direction in answer to His people’s prayers.
Those prayers were answered in a spectacular way. In that regard, now is time to continue praying that the Lord will restrain the evil that is attempting at every level of culture, society, and government to undo that election.
The effort of the combined, globalist cabal to bring down the Trump presidency should be obvious even to the casual observer, it seems to me.
It is equally obvious that Mr. Trump is not president of the United States because he is a godly man. But that he is God’s man for this critical hour cannot, in my estimation, be denied. He is in that position, the most powerful in the world, because the God of Heaven put him there. He is in office for some divine purpose. I believe we are about to be witness to that purpose over the coming weeks, months, and perhaps years.
Now to get to the factor that caused me to ask that you remember my fidelity to handling God’s Word with great care over my years of writing commentaries and books. This isn’t meant to simply convince you of how faithful Terry James is. It is to remind you that I’m not one with a history of kooky dissection of our times by using God’s Word to create sensationalism in any form–i.e., the things I’m about to consider here will take the reader’s sense of credulity perhaps to its limits. Please bear with me, nonetheless.
It was July of 2016. Someone with whom I’m an occasional email correspondent sent me a link to a website. It was a link to a cybercast program of True News.
I rarely ever listen to programs, unless they are recommended by trusted friends and associates. This is partly because my time to do so is limited, and, admittedly, I have listened to some that are speculative beyond the pale.
I listened to this particular program. It was, at that time in July, almost four months until the presidential election of November 8, 2016. The program host and cohost were interviewing a retired fireman named Mark Taylor. Mr. Taylor went through a most fascinating story of a “vision” he said the Lord had given him. He said he could think of no other word to call it than a “vision.”
Taylor laid out his “vision” that gave details of how Donald Trump would become president. The details included the fact that the very foundations of hell would come against him. This force include the mainstream news media, entertainment media, and the entire globalist cabal, as I recall.
I filed that cybercast program, thinking I would be checking back to see how wrong this “visionary” had been. I subconsciously hoped he was right, but could not, of course, bring myself to believe in such sensationalism.
Here is a brief excerpt of what I wrote to my emailer-friend upon receiving the link to Mr. Taylor’s “vision”:
Sondra,
I’m sorry, but I just can’t put credence in these kinds of predictions based upon dreams.
Sorry if that disappoints you, and if it seems hypocritical based upon my own reports of the visit to the periphery of Heaven when my heart stopped those three times on good Friday of 2011.
I’m for Trump over Hillary. There’s no way this nation can survive such a government as she would bring upon us, with Obama having already set in motion our spiral downward. So, I certainly want him to win the election. (Although, I’m, sadly, very skeptical that the nation will turn around regardless of who becomes president.)
Here is the link my friend sent at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axhClQmJMHw
Regardless of my note of reply, Mark Taylor’s story of his “vision” stuck deeply in my mind.
In telling the story, he gave proof that he had been given this “vision” years before–in the year 2011–before Donald Trump ever announced as candidate for president. His is such a vivid and detailed picture of just how things turned out and continue to unfold that I had to contact him. He proved to be a man I now call friend and brother in Christ. He has a book coming out soon detailing the scope of the vision he believes he has been given. Here is the link to that book. It’s title is The Trump Prophecies: The Astonishing True Story of the Man Who SawTomorrow…
https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Prophecies-Astonishing-Tomorrow-Coming/dp/
You can get more information about Mark Taylor and the book at the following.
http://www.skywatchtvstore.com/SupernaturalAwakeningsCollection-p/tp-rad-aaa.htm
As those who follow our “Nearing Midnight” commentaries each week know, we have dwelt on the ongoing details of the political season and things that have unfolded since. There are, I believe, deep, spiritual intrigues taking place with each day that passes. It is a certainty in my view that Donald Trump’s election and the tremendous resistance to his being put into office is testimony to the reality that we are in prophetic times very near the end of the Age of Grace.
Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. (Daniel 2:20-22)
–Terry