- “Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity. Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun. When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil. For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous;even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 2:18-23).
Have a look around at the infrastructure that is deteriorating in the US. It is left behind and freely available to be used by anyone. Some might not consider this wealth, yet it contributed to the wealth of the nation when it was constructed and would have showed up in the gross domestic product accounts (GDP) when being produced and thereby considered to have been part of the country's wealth .
Obama's job was created by somebody else. Obama may be a puppet, but this does not mean everybody else is a puppet. His claim that nobody builds his or her own business is false. The infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc) may have been constructed by others, but if there is no upkeep, that infrastructure will be destroyed. A person who takes it upon himself to establish a business from using that infrastructure is not relying upon someone else having created his business. An inheritance has to be appreciated and put to good use, if it is to be of value. This requires individual effort.
When a person dies and leaves massive inheritances to children, socially this creates problems because of a number of reasons. Mainly because this contributes to discrimination through the creation of a two-tiered society consisting of the haves and have-nots.
Massive amounts of money, of course, leads to purchasing power and ultimately corruption. Especially when people prostitute themselves because they can be bought for a penny, rather than keep their personal integrity intact and be moral beings who love their neighbor as themselves. Preying on the vulnerable, the moneyed class are able to make political prostitutes out of those who seek power. Political prostitutes only exist because there are people who are willing to pay for their services. Both are corrupt.
Another issue has to do with the individuals whose lives become meaningless because they possess no financial need to learn how to grow a business or develop a career that will provide them with a sense of achievement. Although, this is not necessarily the case in all instances, as many people born into wealth do seek to have a purpose in their lives, even it it is to increase the wealth they have inherited or maintain the status quo.
Interestingly, the concept of the Jubilee found in the Torah among the laws of governance for the Israel nation addresses this problem of wealth distribution. Every family is given an inheritance, and family members can even become slaves, but every fifty years that inheritance is to be returned to each family, and those who become slaves are to be freed so they can to return to the family inheritance.
The concept of Jubilee recognizes that the individual should be given the right to do with his or her life as she or he desires, and each one will be responsible for what each does. Nobody will be responsible for another person's actions. If a person decides to make the most of his or her life and enjoy interacting with the surrounds, learning and appreciating what is on offer and contributing to improvements, that person will be rewarded. If a person is lazy or seeks evil, that person will reap accordingly the consequences of their actions.
For such a concept of the Law of Jubilee to exist in the current era, it could not be based upon an agricultural economy. Nevertheless, the introduction of such a concept is possible, if one's inheritance is distributed to the state and the state allocates a certain amount of wealth to every individual at a certain age. What the individual does with that wealth is that individual's responsibility.
True wealth has to do with the individual. A materially poor person can be more wealthy than a person who possesses an abundance of material goods. This is because we can only put on one pair of shoes at a time, sleep in one bed and occupy the space where we happen to be. True wealth has to do with the spiritual realm. For happiness is not found in a coin, a credit card, owning jets, yachts and castles. Happiness is found within. Accomplishment and satisfaction are what make people happy. But an anxious soul cannot sleep at night.
Those who are less well off to begin with will find themselves enjoying a world of discovery if they so desire. Self-help books like Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude and How To Be Rich and How To Be Happy Though Rich attest to this with their accounts of people who have succeeded in becoming accomplished, satisfied individuals, as do the many who have acted on the advice contained within.
The Ten Commandments Were Designed For You To Enjoy And Possess Life
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