One day, Jesus was talking to His disciples about prayer. After giving them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer or Our Father, He added some extra comments, concluding with this: “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Reading through the text of President Obama’s Labor Day speech today in Milwaukee, one suspects that amid Jeremiah Wright’s mix of racist rants under the guise of black liberation theology and collective salvation garbage under the guise of the Gospel, this particular Scripture never came up.
When an experienced carpenter is building a house, and turns to their apprentice to say, “I need a hammer,” it is safe to assume the carpenter needs a hammer. Not a saw. Not a wrench. A hammer.
And why is it safe to assume the carpenter needs a hammer?
They have the experience needed to know what tool is required at any given point during the construction of a house. Therefore, you trust their judgment. After all, they know better than you what goes into the construction of a house. They’ve done it, and they’ve done so successfully. If this was not the case, they wouldn’t be able to find work in their chosen field. (Unless they’re union. But I digress.)
Now, when the experienced carpenter turns to their apprentice and says, “I need a hammer,” does the apprentice get them a hammer? Or do they argue with the carpenter about what tool is required, doing so based on the belief they know better?
Logic says no. They cannot know more than, or better than, the carpenter.
Yet in reality, far too often this is precisely what happens. Whether the root cause is the apprentice believing they know far more than is actually the case, or believing that while the carpenter may have experience on their side they are so much smarter than the carpenter it more than negates the experience factor, tremendous amounts of time and energy are wasted debating what ought not to be so much as a point of discussion.
Meanwhile, the house sits uncompleted.
Breaking this down into specifics, while few can argue the wisdom of investing in the nation’s infrastructure, believing that fifty billion dollars can be conjured without adding to the already ruinous national debt is quite the leap of faith. If the President and Congress can pull it off, more power to them. Now, show me any indication this can be done, especially by the current crop of elected officials who have accomplished nothing while in office other than pour trillions of dollars they don’t have into the ether, with nothing concrete to show for it. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Next comes something that will be officially announced Wednesday: business being allowed to immediately write off the entire amount of any new investment in factories and equipment, replacing the present arrangement in which such investments are written off in parts spread over several years. Sounds nice. The problem is it doesn’t actually do anything, which is why the reaction among the business community is that if the Obama administration and Congress are sincere in their expressed desire to improve the economy by making it easier for private enterprise to operate, they will extend the tax breaks, created by the Bush administration, presently set to expire at the end of the year.
There is no suggestion here that the business world be allowed to conduct itself in any manner it sees fit. This is not possible, given the amount of regulations presently enveloping the entire spectrum of private enterprise. No, the idea is that instead of lecturing to, or lording over, the business world it would benefit both business and government if the latter would actually listen to the former. Instead, government continues to behave like a book-trained apprentice, who’s never swung a hammer, telling the experienced carpenter what tool to use.
And the house sits uncompleted.
