As U.S.A is having its Pluto is returning, and the transit Saturn is retrograde and trine U.S.A Juipter and Venus – The Law of Responsibility is remind us to rethink about our value system and turning inward for self introspetion on our social political and economic structure that are dyfunctional. Any downfall start first from spiritual decay. Now when I rethink about the The Five Precepts of Buddhism and relate to some of the governmental issues, I want to bring it to public attention.
Christian regards stealing not just as a crime, but it’s a sin. Here’s what the Bible says about stealing: “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with hishands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need” (Ephesians 4:28 NKJV).
Buddhism is also not about intellectual pursuit, it is actual about putting the wisdom into our speach, action, behavior and ethic code of everyday life. The second precept, Asteya,in practice implies to “not steal”, “not cheat”, nor unethically manipulate other’s property or others for one’s own gain. Asteya as virtue demands not only that one “not steal”, but that one should not encourage cheating through speech or writing, or want to cheat even in one’s thinking.
Now when we take the guideline and relates it to U.S. dollar, there is questions about American’s consience. Backed by the U.S government sovereity power, Federal Reserve print money out of thin air to lend it to U.S Treasury to spend on government budget and issue bonds. Just as former Federal Reserve Chairman of near twenty years, Greenspan said, “No Chance of Default, US Can Print Money“. U.S maybe able to temporary avoid nominal default because of our military dominance, but U.S.A can not avoid spiritual decay. Some have compared the spiritual life to walking upstream; if you are not fighting to move forward, then you are, by default, going backwards. There is a continual inertia drawing us and others towards spiritual decay. Law of Karma says, whatever thoughts or energy you put out, you get back — good or bad. In order to get what you want, you have to embody and be worthy of those things. It’s the concept of what you reap, you sow. Here are the 12 laws of Karma everyone should know about.
Almost half of U.S debt will mature within the next two years. Considering the interest rate is much higher than last 10 years, as government borrow new debt to pay off the old debt, their interest expense is going to go through the roof.
As a reserve currency, when Federal Reserve print money, it dilute the purchasing power of the dollars in circulation in rest of the world. By complicit to the Federal Reserve operation, U.S government is in default of its morality. The U.S government does not obtain the proval of the governments in the rest of the world, and it is stealing, by definition above. Such operation has caused U.S.A intense crashes with the rest of the world. In addition, we lose any moral high ground to be the leader of the world, and if we do not make correction to the wrong doing, U.S.A will inevitable crumble under our own weight – how prone we are to fall back into sin and compromise. Maybe we should work with the global community to come up with a commonly accept currency to be more fair to everyone.
American has always been adament about loyalty to its Constitution. The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[n]o person shall be … deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” With all the connectivity of the era of Globalization, shouldn’t this rule apply in our national conduct?
When responsibility for public goods and services rests not with our democratic institutions but with wealthy private individuals. it is a system know as “philanthrocapitalism” which relies on charity of billionaires to support public projects, instead of just regulating and taxing those billionaires to begin with. According to a recent article in The guardian, Philanthropy serves to legitimize capitalism, as well as to extend it further and further into all domains of social cultural and political activity.” The piece goes on to say, “Exploitative labor practices or corporate malpractice are swept under the carpet as companies publicize tax-efficient contributions to good causes. Billionaires and multi-millionaires love to pat themselves on the back for their charitable giving. But what if we just taxed the rich and regulated their business practices instead of letting them get away with theft and atrocity while still getting to pad their reputation by giving away the millions of dollars they stole from their laborers? Even more irony is lawyers and law school are heavily invovled in these philanthropy scheme that is ruining America. The rapidly growing empirical literature on international tax avoidance by multinational corporations is even caught the attention of IMF
A 2021 document Addressing Tax System Failings That Favor Billionaires and Corporations. It revealed bombshell reports from ProPublica have confirmed what tax experts have long known and what many Americans have long suspected: Many of the country’s wealthiest people pay little or no tax because the U.S. system preferences income from wealth and offers the wealthy and corporations avenues to avoid tax that are not available to working people.1 These fundamental flaws in the tax code existed many years before the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) took things from bad to worse by giving massive new tax cuts to the highest-income Americans and largest corporations.2 These flaws have helped fuel the dramatic increase in inequality, leading to a less dynamic and less just economy.
A massive trove of tax information obtained by ProPublica, covering thousands of America’s wealthiest individuals, reveals what’s inside the billionaires’ bag of tricks for minimizing their personal tax bills — sometimes to nothing. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. In June 2021, The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax These IRS Files hold the secrets Inside the Tax Records of the .001% and the absurdity of U.S government. A Novermber 2021 story from IRS records reveal how Gov. Jim Justice, Gov. Jared Polis, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other wealthy political figures slashed their taxes using strategies unavailable to most of their constituents.
In the book The Hidden Wealth of Nations, Zucman offers an inventive and sophisticated approach to quantifying how big the problem is, how tax havens work and are organized, and how we can begin to approach a solution. His research reveals that tax havens are a quickly growing danger to the world economy. In the past five years, the amount of wealth in tax havens has increased over 25%—there has never been as much money held offshore as there is today. This hidden wealth accounts for at least $7.6 trillion, equivalent to 8% of the global financial assets of households. Fighting the notion that any attempts to vanquish tax havens are futile, since some countries will always offer more advantageous tax rates than others, as well the counter-argument that since the financial crisis tax havens have disappeared, Zucman shows how both sides are actually very wrong. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations he offers an ambitious agenda for reform, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens. Only by first understanding the enormity of the secret wealth can we begin to estimate the kind of actions that would force tax havens to give up their practices.
U.S had got used to use economic sanction to any government in the rest of the world that does not cooperate with its idiology. But we have to ask ourself where does that power come from? Is it mere force of bully? If we are violate the universal principle, we lose the divine precondition specified in the George Washington’s Thanks Giving Proclamation : “the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.” Besides, how can American take so granted that our idiology is better than rest of the world? What gives us the right to enforce rules on others without setting an example ourself? Is not that double standard? Pope Francis laments when ‘ideology replaces faith’ in segment of U.S. Catholics.
Even if we have valid reason to require other countries to cooperate with our rule, weaponize U.S dollar should not be the means to the end. And are should be many other avenues to deploy rather than using economic mean which is a new form of colonization. For example the sanction of nuclear weapon, US government documents admit that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not necessary to end WWII. Japan was on the verge of surrendering. The nuclear attack was the first strike in Washington’s Cold War on the Soviet Union. Ben Norton reviews the historical record. One of the audience commented: “My Dad served in the Far East during WWII. He didn’t come home until May 1946. He was adamant that the US used the Atom Bomb because they were terrified of Russia overrunning Japan. The Red Army crossed Manchuria in 24 hours reaching the coast from which they could launch an invasion. All his friends and my uncles all agreed with my Dad.”
According to the article from Bible.org, What are signs of spiritual decay in our lives or others and how should we confront it? Misuse of Finances Is a Sign of Spiritual Decay. We must develop a righteous anger that leads us to confront sin. A Decrease in Time Given to Worship Is a Sign of Spiritual Decay. We must be people who truly desire to please God. Certainly, we see this decay in our churches and Christian communities. Why are so many of our churches in disarray? Statistics say that around 75% of youth fall away from the faith in college and never return.4 Seventeen hundred pastors leave the ministry every month in America.5 We have churches making all kinds of moral compromises as they disregard Scripture. We are seeing a very rapid spiritual decay happening in the church. When we compromise with the world, not only does it affect us, but it affects those close to us, like our children. They will grow up speaking and thinking like the world, instead of speaking and thinking like God.
We must be tenacious in seeking to practice a holy life and also fighting for holiness in our national standard as well as that of churches. Maybe behind the government/federal reserve’s compromise, we need to start with raising the conscience from the kindergarden and all the way of schools as well as that of the church community.
For reference, here is a article research on Christian, Buddhism and Muslim, the three religious are all against Usury. 星云大师：佛教对经济的看法 谈到佛教不但重视一时的财富，更重视永久的财富；不但重视现世的财富，更重视来生的财富。非法所得的财富，例如：窃取他物、违法贪污、抵赖债物、吞没寄存、欺罔共财、因便侵占、藉势茍得、经营非法、诈骗投机、赌博淫业、放高利贷等，则为佛教所不许。 … 佛教不但重视狭义的金钱财富，尤其重视广义之财，例如：佛法、信仰、 … 星云法师著述《当代问题座谈纪实》讨论“放高利贷”是否合乎“正业”？佛教过去办有类似今日的“当铺”，只向百姓收取非常微薄的利息，甚至完全不取分厘，以帮助贫苦人士经济上的周转运用，譬如北魏的僧祇粟、南北朝的寺库、唐朝三阶教的无尽藏院，都是佛教为了便民利国的金融事业。只是佛教创典当制度，不同于今日一般当铺的高利放贷，佛教是本着来之于十方，用之于十方的精神，把社会的净财做一个集中，然后再一次发挥其整体的力量，回馈于社会，属于服务大众的慈善事业，而且具有繁荣经济的功能。譬如前面提到的开酒家、赌场、卖钓鱼器具、卖打猎的猎枪，或者是算命、卜卦、看相等都是邪命的经济生活。佛教不提倡看风水、择日期，《佛遗教经》曾指示佛教徒不应去仰观星宿、推算命运，因为这些都不是合乎因缘法则正命的经济生活，都是佛法所不允许的。
Couple months ago, two of the most influential economic thought leaders of our time came together for a fireside chat: Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, and Raghuram Rajan, the Chicago economic professor. They explored key themes from Wolf’s latest book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (2023). They also reflected on some of today’s most pressing issues—including the rise of inequality, economic turmoil, and political instability—and examined the role of capitalism, democracy, markets, and civil society in shaping a more secure and prosperous future for all.
Richard Wolff on how Europe DESTROYED itself in America’s War on China. He said, for the last 25-30 years, major American Multinational Corporation had a wonderful profitable time trading with and investing in China. China was the capitalist dream, it offered capitalists low wage, disciplined, educated labor and the fastest growing market in the world. Corporations went head over heels making enormous amount of profits. All the major coporations in America want peace, deal and mutual finances between U.S and China. They don’t give a flying what about Taiwan or anything else. They don’t talk about Uyghurs or HongKong. The Chinese policies when provoked by the neocons pretened it didn’t happen. Becuase the Chinese government want what the American business community wants which is the profitable commerce. On the other hand, there is the political ideological sometimes captured neocons or neoconservatives who are out there being the Vanguard to try to stop what is happening which is the decline of USA relative to the rise of China. So they want the tariffs, they want the trade Wars. They got it half way with Trump, and a quarter of the way with Obama, and they got another halfway with Biden. But ti is always a quarter and a half becuase this conflict. Now the militar industrial complex has a particular position, they don’t want war, but they want perpetual trouble so that they can get the funding for defense. Put all these today, the rest of the world acutely aware of U.S.A’s decline and contraditory policy. Chinese state capitalism has sent western capitalist world in shock.
