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Carmine Gorga is president of The Somist Institute and a former Fulbright Scholar. He has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals and five books; other publications are at various stages of preparation. He has a substantial presence on the ...more

The Economic Content of the "Our Father" Prayer (Abridged)

Date: Monday, January 24, 2022 7:31 PM EDT

Going back from Concordian economics to the ancient history of economics, this writer has written of the Economics of Moses and the Economics of Jesus from a variety of points of view. Here he would like to present the most synthetic formulation of them all: The Economics of Moses and the Economics of Jesus are fully present in the “Our Father.”

The most explicit formulation is the prayer to Our Father to “forgive our debts.” This is an original translation; what must be a common mistranslation is “forgive our trespasses.” Trespasses? What is a trespass? The word trespass isolates Jesus from Moses.

A program of debt forgiveness is a Mosaic Debt Jubilee. Given the context, we can say that Jesus was very forceful about it. A systematic debt jubilee every seven years is essential to set our monetary house on a steady and sound foundation. This is the first essential program of Concordian monetary economics.

The second essential program of Concordian economics is also included in the “Our Father.” Jesus prays to God to give us “our daily bread.” In the Parable of the Loaves and Fishes, Jesus makes it perfectly clear that He was—He is—concerned about our earthly bread. Otherwise, He would have remained content with the offer of a sermon to the crowd. Jesus was obviously concerned with our daily earthly bread—in addition to our heavenly bread, of course.

It has been a recent revelation. To make our daily bread we need all four factors of (modern) production: 1. Land (a place to grow wheat and to bake bread); 2. Labor (flour does not knead itself into dough); 3. Money (to rent or buy the land where bread is made, buy flour, and sell the bread); and 4. Physical capital (the oven and other tools).

Concordian economics teaches us that to acquire control over these four factors of production we need to exercise four rights:

  1. The right of access to land and natural resources;
  2. The right of access to the fruits of one’s labor;
  3. The right of access to financial resources imbued in our national credit; and
  4. The right of access to the fruits of one’s property.

How are these rights acquired? To the best of this writer’s understanding, economic rights are acquired through the exercise of corresponding economic responsibilities; namely,

  1. The responsibility to pay taxes on land and natural resources under our control;
  2. The responsibility to perform tasks required in the process of wealth creation;
  3. The responsibility to repay loans obtained through access to national credit; and
  4. The responsibility to respect the property of others.

Who are the powerful people who would object to this program of action? As pointed out on another occasion, four presumed antagonists are supposed to be:

  1. Landowners who do not want to pay their fair share of taxes on the value of their land;
  2. Central bankers who do not want to serve the public interest;
  3. Entrepreneurs who do not want to offer full compensation for services received; and
  4. Business people who want to gobble up the fruit of other people’s effort.

Where are they? Apart from their minuscule apparitions, when measured against the billions of entrepreneurs who behave morally, they are four phantoms—but more dangerous for being ingrained in the imagination of people who, blinded by their institutional power, see neither economics nor morality clearly. READ: tax assessors, politicians, and academicians who, unable to speak truth to power, make themselves powerless and paralyze entire nations.

Full demonstration to the contrary can be found in the following extraordinary circumstances. Having shown to the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) the wisdom of Concordian monetary theory, the Fed had the moral fortitude to respond: “Given your proposal, I suggest that you contact your state and federal representatives.”

Notice that the Fed has traditionally fought political interference into its operations tooth and nail.

This writer has had precious few resources of money and time to devote to the task. Is this the time for more resourceful entities to intervene in these affairs?

Yes, the whole of Concordian economics is contained in the “Our Father.”

Yes, Concordian economics alone will grant us all financial independence—without the contribution of even one cent from the powers-that-be, but through the transformation of their privileges into economic rights and responsibilities for all.

And what does financial independence mean? It means that we cannot be any richer; we are as rich as we want to be, as rich as we can be.

It means that, being economically free, we can finally assume all the moral responsibilities that make our lives worth living.

We will finally be able to integrate the requirements of economic, ecological, and human interdependence.

We will finally be able to live as brothers.

 

Fuller article can be found here: http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv18n01page18.html


 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carmine Gorga, PhD, a Fulbright Scholar, is president of The Somist Institute. Through his books, The Economic Process and To My Polis, With Love, and numerous other publications in economic theory and policy, he has transformed economics from a linear to a relational discipline.

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Carmine Gorga 2 years ago Author's comment

If you read this article, you'll see why I have been for quite some time a pain in the neck of many - but not all - academic economists. It seems now that Theologians do not like me that much either. When will "common" men and women come to the rescue? THEIR RESCUE AS WELL AS MINE.