Very good analysis. Scott, there is a bit more to the Union story. It is part, if not the major reason behind the October Revolution and the establishment of the USSR. Most of my knowledge comes from family history through my grandfather who was born in 1862 and reported on the effects this system,the Bolshevik, had on the Mid West where he grew up in the 1870s. We were never taken in by their promises but knew them for what they were. That is why the organized labor movement is associated with Russia, its first captive victim so the system preceded the USSR and is not the it product. It is not the child of Russia but Russia was the victim of the union mentality that you have described so well. It is tyrannical in nature and consider just how free its members are. You have already touched on their victimization of their members and further research will confirm that when they are in charge you do as they say, not as you will. The Union owns you just as the South owned slaves.
The risk of free enterprise is that its legal to make mistakes and you are responsible for the consequences. We are not liable for peoples welfare, just concerned and willing to lend a helping hand where needed. We understand that in order to make a trade you have to have something that is more valuable to me that the thing I am trading but the thing I am trading must also have an equal value to you to make the deal work. When the Lord gave the law to Moses he gave the instructions to make the system work and it has always produced peace and then prosperity.
** Jas 4:1 ¶ From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?**
So when we follow our lusts we forsake peace. We sow strife and discord which lead directly to poverty. Check out Hamas against the Israeli green house operators they drove out of Gaza and how some of these same Israelis moved on to some barren land, used desalinated sea water for irrigation and are now a thriving community raising produce for sale. Why don’t the Palestinians do this instead of shower rockets on Israel? Do they lack opportunity or just the will?
