Liberating Planet Earth

T4e Liberation of th Economy 127
chosen to ignore His commandment against theft. Modern man
has adopted a new theology, the ownership of property by the
state. The state, as the sovereign owner, delegates to its servants
the right to administer its property, but the state then insists on its
share, its tithe. The tithe principle is built into the creation; the
only question is this: Who gets the tithe? The state is collecting its
tithe. As one economist has summarized it: win, and the state
wins with you; lose, and you lose alone.” That is the rule for the
rich and the middle class, in any case.
The modem state L a thief. When Samuel warned the nation of
Israel against selecting a king to rule over them, he tried to scare
them by telling them that the king would extract a tithe of 10%
(1 Samuel 8:15-17). The greatest bureaucratic dynasty of the ancient
world, Egypt, took 2070 as its tithe (Genesis 47:26). There is
not a Western industrial state that extracts as little as Egypt took.
In fact, in most instances, a tax rate of one-fifth of a nation’s productivity
would constitute a tax reduction of at least 50%.
Private property reduces uncertainty. It gives men an incentive
to produce. It expands men’s time horizons to unborn generations.
It encourages economic growth by enabling innovators and
workers to capture the value of @eir increased productivity. It
encourages thrift. Being familistic in nature, it promotes the central
institution of dominion. It allows the transfer of information,
the transfer of risk, and the transfer of capital to those who are
willing and able to bear the economic responsibilities of ownership.
The protection of private property is one of the cornerstones
of civilization. The civil government is to protect private property,
not steal it.
The rise of the messianic state has threatened civilization. It is
the greatest single danger today to the preservation and expansion
of familistic capital. The envy-dominated ideologies of wealthdistribution
through coercion – Marxism, socialism, Keynesianism,
and the “social gospel”— have captured the minds of the
intellectuals and political leaders. Unless this process is reversed,
these anti-Biblical doctrines will recapitalize the modern world.