ECONOMICS of the INTERIOR Part 2: SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD'S ECONOMY

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Throughout my reading assignment regarding God’s economy I noticed the reappearing of some interesting economic characteristics. Consistently, the model of the economic system in the ancient Scriptures elevated the individual above the collective, and it revered the law and goodness above raw power. Moral standards trumped oppression; integrity and perseverance proved to be stronger than brute force or skullduggery in the end.

Other characteristics that seemed to continually recur were a call for personal responsibility and accountability, a promotion of fairness, frugality, production, and a conscionable work ethic.

At all times the power of individual choice was emphasized and discrimination was frowned upon. Respect was one of the underlying characteristics, whether it was the respect required for all of God’s creations or the presumed respect for the phenomenon of time, and the relative shortness of a person’s life.

There was, in addition, an expectation that the participants in the economic model would strive to make things better while they were involved in the system, and that they would hold in high esteem the elements of wisdom and knowledge. I was impressed that there was an emphasis on society and even governments punishing wrong and encouraging good.

Especially in the Gospels, economics of the interior appeared to be almost counter-intuitive at times and mostly up-side-down in logic. This is particularly true in the Sermon on the Mount. Instead of a person being concerned with activities of getting, it placed a premium on the behavior of giving. Instead of an emphasis on accumulation, it was concerned with relinquishment. Instead of consumption, it emphasized stewardship. That is counter-intuitive and up-side-down logic!

I think it is fair to say that, usually, economic models of a society are largely designed with group behavior in mind. The economic system of the interior deals more with the innate value system and behavior of the individual who, coincidentally, finds herself or himself actively involved in a society.

In addition to the above listed characteristics of an economic system of the interior, I would like to pull out and discuss six additional characteristics that we will refer to as principles of God’s economy. This list is in no way an exclusive list.

Principle # 1: God Has Given

If God has an economy, this characteristic would certainly be the most unique. All other economic models are based on the economic trilogy known as Scarcity, Choice, and Cost. It is assumed that all things are in limited supply, because all those supplies have alternative uses. Humans are presumed to have unlimited needs and desires. There is no way that all those desires can be met by the limited supply. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary that choices be made as to which needs and desires will be satisfied by the limited supply.

The real cost of making a decision as to which limited item will be used to satisfy the chosen need or desire has nothing to do with money or wealth. The real cost comes in the foregoing of the next highest need or desire that is forfeited. You decided to use the item or commodity on procuring the one good or service at the expense of not being able to procure your next highest desire. You, therefore, lost the opportunity to use that supply to meet another need or desire. That is known as opportunity cost. That is the reason that some people through the years have referred to economics as the science or study of making good choices. How can you make better decisions in determining which limited resource should be used for which need?

So, from whence did all those resources come . . . in the first place? My research found that there was no hesitation in the Holy Scriptures when it came to answering that question: 

. . . Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as being in control of everything . . . Everything we have has come from you, and we only give you what is yours already! For we are here for but a moment, strangers in the land as our fathers were before us; our days on earth are like a shadow, gone so soon, without a trace. O Lord our God, all of this material that we have gathered to build a temple for your holy name comes from you! It all belongs to you! (1 Chronicles 29: 11-16 TLB)

Everything that exists came from the hand of God. Everything that I have has come to me as a direct gift from God or is a by-product of a gift exchange. Nothing exists that did not come from God.

The earth belongs to God! Everything in all the world is his! (Psalm 24:1TLB)

The balance of the entire economic system of the interior rests upon that factor. He never requires anything of his participants that He has not already given to them. In God’s economy there is no such thing as successfully cheating or robbing, because when the participants finally get through playing their greed-games with earth’s possessions, God ultimately reassumes and repossesses all the stuff.

O Lord, what a variety you have made! And in wisdom you have made them all! The earth is full of your riches. There before me lies the mighty ocean, teeming with life of every kind, both great and small. And look! See the ships! And over there, the whale you made to play in the sea. Every one of these depends on you to give them daily food. You supply it, and they gather it. You open wide your hand to feed them and they are satisfied with your bountiful provision. (Psalm 104:24-28 TLB)

God is the source; everything else is a resource in the economics of the interior. That is what prompted me to consider that the whole model is counter-intuitive and a bit up-side-down.

Since everything has always belonged to God, it is impossible for you to try to influence or bribe God by giving something to him first. But by giving first, God has set into motion the expectation for the participants in the model to join him in his giving and, likewise, give from their inventories to the needs of others whenever he so prompts or requests. That is called obedience.

If God is the source, then the whole paradigm of scarcity, choice, and cost must be revisited. Is that whole concept a ploy of political manipulation? How should we respond if there is truly no such thing as scarcity? Should not our real concentration then focus on abundance and allocation rather than accumulation and hoarding?

Next Week: More Economic Possibilities

(Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writing project on Cultural Economics)

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

  

www.drjameswjackson.com 

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

CULTURAL ECON:, COST

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

The simple, little economic trilogy of scarcity, choice, and cost may well be one of the most useful concept gadgets in your tool bag of decision making. Keep the tool handy and use it a lot.

One of the most interesting aspects of our present consumer culture is our fixation with the printed price tag. What does this item cost? Or, this week we are rolling back all the prices, or, the cost of this item is reduced until Friday. The cost to be considered in the purchase of a product or service is presented to be on the bar code or price tag. But the money you tender to the cashier may not be the cost at all. The retailer, however, has even narrowed the logic of your decision to purchase down to the common denominator of do I have enough money to buy this?

In your lifetime the culture has even erased the criterion of whether you have enough money or not in your pocket to make the purchase by supplying you with a convenient piece of plastic that nullifies the logic and allows you to make the purchase, regardless. You walk away with your purchase fully confident that you did the really smart thing because you simply could not have lived without the item another day at that irresistible price. I actually know folks who will drive all the way across town to purchase their gasoline if the price is one cent per gallon cheaper than the competition. They spend three dollars to get across town to save twenty-four cents at the pump. What was the real cost?

I remember listening to a reporter’s interview with one of the early astronauts. The reporter’s question was, how do you feel, sitting in a spacecraft that has been built by the cheapest bidder? Our thinking regarding price tags or bids sometimes does not consider the real cost.

In the discipline of economics, cost is viewed through a different set of glasses. Cost is not determined by how much money you spent or how many plastic swipes you transacted. Cost is inexorably linked to scarcity and choice. In fact, scarcity, choice, and cost are at the very heart of the study of economics. When a good or service is scarce it means that the choice of one alternative requires that the next highest alternative be given up. The very existence of alternative uses forces us to make choices. The opportunity cost of any choice is the value of the next best alternative that was lost or forgone in making that choice. The true cost of the alternative that you did not choose may or may not have anything to do with money as represented on a bar code or printed price tag.

It would be easy to give lots of illustrations of foregone opportunity cost: the university student who gives up four years of earned income and pays thousands and thousands of dollars to attend university classes he hopes will better his position for the balance of his life; the girl who gives up marrying her childhood sweetheart in lieu of a musical career in London; the farmer who decides to continue farming the old family acreage instead of selling the property to the big box store.

But I don’t have to go farther to find true-to-life examples than to consider some of my friends from the organization that I love so much: Project C.U.R.E. We have over 16,000 volunteers within the United States at our various warehouse operations and collection cities. Every one of those sixteen thousand individuals has a personal story of scarcity, choice, and cost. The stories are packed with drama and passion because they each represent personal desires and values. None has to come and volunteer. But they faithfully come by the scores . . . but at a cost. What was the value of the alternative that was lost when they decided to forego that next highest alternative and choose to volunteer their time and efforts for no money payment?

In 1999, an operating room nurse named Barb Youngberg came with another nurse friend to check out Project C.U.R.E. They had heard at a hospital staff meeting about the humanitarian organization that was functioning out of the huge Continental Airport hangers at the old Denver Stapleton airport. They were intrigued by what they saw and the idea that their efforts were saving lives all around the world. Barb and her friend made a decision to start sorting medical supplies one night a month for Project C.U.R.E.

As Project C.U.R.E. had to move around the city from one donated location to another, Barb followed and began donating more and more of her time. In 2005, she retired from her hospital job but kept volunteering. In 2007, the doctors discovered that Barb had congestive heart failure. To complicate the diagnostic procedures, they found she was allergic to the dye required for the tests. She knew exactly what the surgery entailed because she had scrubbed down and assisted in many such surgeries in the past.

Just hours after the successful diagnosis, the doctors performed open heart surgery that also included the insertion of a pacemaker. As she lay in the recovery room and then spent two and a half weeks in rehabilitation, she knew she had to make a huge decision. She was now realizing that the years of life she had left were a very scarce commodity. What would she do with those years? She had to make a decision. Would she take it easy on some leisure cruises, or relax and stay around home . . . or what?

Barb made her decision. Just as soon as she was able, she returned to Project C.U.R.E. She had decided to give the best of her life for the rest of her life helping other people be better off. Project C.U.R.E. had just moved into its permanent location near Park Meadows, in Centennial. Barb volunteered to take over the entire bio-med tech area and build it into an efficient and successful department. She already possessed the knowledge of the various pieces of equipment. Over the years of her career she had accumulated the valuable experience of working with the medical machines and pieces of technical equipment. Those were her talents. Now she could manage the inventory and lots of other people to help her build and run a successful department.

When the pieces of bio-med-tech equipment, like x-ray machines, defibrillators, e.k.g. machines, ultrasound machines, or anesthesia machines arrive on Project C.U.R.E.’s docks, Barb Youngberg knows exactly what to do to get those valuable, life-saving items ready to be shipped to the targeted hospitals and clinics in over 130 different countries working with Project C.U.R.E. around the world.

Utilizing the economic trilogy of scarcity, choice, and cost can help us make better decisions throughout our lives. In Barb Youngberg’s case, realizing she faced the scarcity of years, and knowing she had to make a choice, she gave up the options of cruises and leisure in lieu of helping to save countless lives of kids and adults around the world. We salute her for her nearly fourteen years of voluntary service at Project C.U.R.E. and her determination to make good choices.

Next week: A weakness of the economic trilogy

(Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writing project on Cultural Economics)

© Dr. James W. Jackson  

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com