BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

While we're waiting for the new economic stimulus plan to be unveiled on change.gov, or while we're waiting for it to kick-in, how about developing a backup plan at sparechange.gov?

Here's Tom Waits in a YouTube video singing the Depression-era "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931). It's a little rougher than the traditionally smooth Bing Crosby version.

They used to tell me,
I was building a dream
With peace and glory ahead.
Why should I be standing in line
Just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad,
I made it run
I made it run against time
Once i built a railroad,
and now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime? ...

Once in khaki suits,
Ah, gee we looked swell
Full of that yankee-doodle dee-dum!

Brother, can you spare a dime?


There are more and more people all around us needing our help.

UNDERSTANDING WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT MONEY

GOD'S ECONOMY ARE PLAIN IN SCRIPTURE






Read





Notes: oikonomos (household rules) is used in the following New Testament passages Luke 12:42; 16:1-8 (many times); I Cor 4:1,2; 9:17; Colossians 1:25; Ephesians 1:10; 3:2,9; Timothy 1:4; Galatians 4:2; Romans 16:23; Titus 1:7; I Peter 4:10.

• Oikovomos comes from two words - oikos (household or house) and nomos (law or rules); so it means literally household rules. The contemporary words economy and economist are direct translation from it. The word ecumenical comes from oikoumene (household living). The King James Version translated the word as steward/stewardship. Modern translators also use minister/manager/management/plan/office. To make the word nomos relevant it should be translated economy/economist/economic plan when used comprehensively.

Financial freedom comes from acknowledging God's in control.

1. Christians must settle the battle between scriptural truths and worldly beliefs once and for all. The Scriptures are the instructions from God on proper behavior in every area of our lives, including our possessions.
   
   
2. The Christain must understand he is to follow the economy plan of God first, rather than fall for the worldy belief system of economy.

WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES WHEN YOU BUY GAS

DUBAI, United Arab, Saudi Arabia

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WHERE YOU MONEY GOES WHEN YOU BUY GAS

Speedway/Shell/Texaco/Amoco

Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more moneyinto the coffers of Saudi Arabia . Just buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis.

BP/ARCO/Sinclair/Sunoco

PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Having received this QuickNotes from John G. Miller, the content fits my article on what to do about the high rise of gasoline prices. Part Three

QBQ! (The Question Behind the Question) QuickNote

QBQ! QuickNotes™ may be forwarded by email to others or printed in their entirety for personal and group use. © QBQ, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

The ultimate system of personal accountability? A supply and demand based economy. What a great place to live and prosper.

And the crowd said AMEN!

Have you ever voted with your feet? Sure, we all have. Tough steak? Pass up that restaurant next time. Uncomfortable, lumpy bed? Skip that hotel chain. Clothes that shrink 30% with the first wash? Drop that brand. Gasoline at $4/gallon???

Drive less. Drive differently. Drive something different.

Yep, we can whine and complain about the price of gas and blame those "greedy, evil oil company executives" with their ginormous compensation packages and corporate profits. Or we can have the heated political debate of "to drill or not to drill" in the pristine areas of our land. Or—if we dare—we can recognize our personal accountability in it all.

Let's see, remembering my Economics 101 class at Cornell University 30 year ago, it went something like this: When demand is higher than supply, prices go up. When demand slacks, sellers everywhere, not wanting to miss business, lose customers, and see revenues drop, lower their prices.

And no matter the product, this truth applies. Ever complained about the culture-destroying garbage put out by Hollywood?

Well, someone's buying it. Wonder why an iPhone costs so darn much? Someone's buying it. Feeling angry over gasoline prices rising every single day for a month? Guess what? You and I are buying it.

You might say, "But, John, I have no choice but to buy gas." For the most part, true. But the accountability piece is all about me asking myself, "How do my choices affect the current situation and what can I do to change my choices?" Recently a favorite neighbor pulled up along my wife and I while we were taking a Tuesday morning walk. Her SUV looked great. Shiny, clean—like new! We asked, "Where've you been, Susan?" She responded, "I needed my Starbucks!!!"

Well, I'm sure Starbucks is pleased with their powerful draw—the ability to suck people out of their homes on a weekday morning for an 8 mile round trip for a caramel frappachino—but multiply our nice neighbor's choice a million-fold and—excuse me!?—who do we blame??? Oh, yes, those bad, bad oil company execs, our legislators, and the man in the Oval Office.

The truth is, by their very nature, economies are cyclical. They are monstrous, dynamic organisms comprised of hundreds of millions of consumer choices—people everywhere living a life of volition, or said differently, exercising their free will in a free country built on a fantastic idea called capitalism. Very rarely is anyone "at fault." Unless maybe, just maybe, we are responsible. You see, our choices are often cyclical. For many, it's excess followed by belt tightening followed by excess followed by budget cutting, and so on. And somewhere in the cycle things get out of hand—both for the economy and in our personal world—and we start buying the lie that's it's not about us and our personal decisions. So we blame, play victim, point fingers, whine and complain.

But we don't have to travel that route. We can take the high road where citizens everywhere demand of themselves ownership of individual choices, because it's through our own choices that we—you and I—are actually in control of it all. The power of personal choice is simply amazing. So, today, let's vote with our feet and walk the accountable path. It could make all the difference.
AMEN.

P.S. You know what? I think today, I just might park my truck and choose to go on eBay to re-purchase the neon orange 49cc Honda Express scooter I rode to those Cornell classes in the late 1970s. Looking back, a zillion miles per gallon was a good thing.

John G. Miller

Author of QBQ! and Flipping the Switch

A UNDERSTANDING OF THE ECONOMY: SECULAR AND BIBLICAL

HAVING A BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE ECONOMY
Part Two

Having a secular understanding of how economy works is good. Econ 101 is good to learn. To understand how products are priced will help us to stay calm. Then having a biblical understanding of living in our economy is good to learn. Knowing facts gives us some control over our feelings and thinking. If I know why gasoline prices are up, if I know why Union Mills have to price full size cakes at nearly $50, and why prices at Mex-Itali have to be raised, then I am more calm, and I know if I have to make some adjustments in those produces I buy.

There are many resources that can give us good direction. I researched the pricing of gasoline this week. Why have the price of gasoline raised? Research does help you understand what is really going on in the pricing of any commodity. Now to know these fact we can learn from the people who know these things.

The second point I want to point out: Understanding how we as Christians should respond to the raising prices of commodities. To know how we should respond and live in this culture, we need to turn to the Word of God.

Over the last forty years we have certainly learned from a few Christian teachers on this subject of financial issues. We have being to a number of financial workshops by Christians teachers. There really has being no shortage of resources on this subject.

Personally I am no authority on this subject, I can certainly say, I have studied the topic, tired to put in place some of the principles we have learned. And I might add while we have tried to practice good financial principles over the years, there have being many times in which we have failed in this area. But simply because you have failed is no reason to quit trying to do it better the next time.

A BIBLICAL PROSPECTIVE ON LIVING OUR LIFE IN VIEW OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST.

We need a right biblical view of the purpose of spending and buying and wealth.

1. If we think that we can get rich by our own power, we will become the victims of our own schemes….”For it is (God) that gives you power to get wealth.” Deuteromomy 8:18
   


2. The purpose of money is not to free us from daily dependence on God, but to demonstrate God’s love and power in our lives. “If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.” Matthew 6:30
   


3. You have heard the ad “BE YOUR OWN BOSS?” Really that is not correct. We don’t live like we really would like. I really truly would like to buy a Nissan GTR . Chevy Corvette Z06 vs. Porsche 911 Turbo. But the Porsche 911 cost over 135,000 dollars. So we need to accept Scriptural restraints, and go to K Mart and buy a Hot Wheel Porsche 911 Turbo for lest than a dollar. “For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman; likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant.” I Corinthians 7:22
   


4. If we fail to fully apply God’s principles of the usage of money, God sometimes allows riches with sorrow or the devouring of our assets. “You looked for much, and, lo, it came to little, and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? Said the Lord of hosts, Because of mine house that is waste, and you run every man unto his own house.” Haggai 1:9
   
   To continue:

CHECK OUT by website GROW BY LEARNING

GASOLINE PRICES WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THEM?

Daily Complaining But Little Adjustments. Gasoline Prices, The Work Place, Church, Living Life, Finances, Marriage, Relationships, etc.

Part One

I was asked this week “What was the lowest gasoline price that you can remember?” I don’t remember what the price was growing up!

In 1960 the gasoline pricewas $0.25. In 1966 we attended Bible Baptist Seminary; and in Arlington Texas, the price of gasoline was $0.17. I worked at a gas station for $1.00 per hour. In 1971 while pastor of Madison Baptist Church, the gasoline price was $0.30; and in 1973 the price went to $0.50, and we felt we were going to go broke at those prices. Then the price went to $1.00 in 1999, and of course, the rest is history. In 2007 the price went to $3 and in 2008 the price is now at $4.

I can remember thinking at each increase of gasoline, the price has to come back down. Yet for a while they would come back down, then up they would go again.

You can take several approaches to this issue.

1. Get mad and fuss all you want. Complain, complain, and complain, or
2. Learn Econ 101 and 201 then
3. Take personal responsibility, and do what needs to be done and learn to
4. Take up the system of personal accountability.
   

But remember this, government intervention is not going to prevent the rise of oil prices. Secondly, boycotts at the local BP, Super Quick or Kroger, or Speedway are not going to work. Thirdly, the current President of the United State or the next President of the United State is not going to change the fluctuation of the gasoline prices. And you really can do something about the gasoline you use.

SO HOW ARE WE GOING TO DEAL WITH THE RISING OF GASOLINE PRICES, THE RISING COST OF FOOD, AND THE HIGH COST OF EATING OUT, OR FLYING ON AMERICAN AIRLINE?

HINT:

• If you are going to buy a Mercedes 500 SL, or a Ferrari F512M or a Lamborghini! Buy a Hot Wheel. They are still 95 cents at your local store.

FIRST A LOOK AT THE GASOLINE PRICES:

(If you Google gasoline prices, you will learn a great deal about this issue: Like the following:)

Oil prices fluctuate wildly. So do gasoline prices. No amount of government intervention is going to prevent the market from fluctuating.

Every spring gas prices go up. They hike even more in the run-up to the Memorial Day weekend and remain high until after Labor Day. Every year we grumble about price gouging and ruthless profiteering just as the higher travel season of summer comes on. Those stinking oil companies have us over a barrel, right? This year it’s far worse. $4 gallon gas with record oil industry profits! What’s up with that?

So what happens you hear like clockwork: Let’s boycott the gas stations, Somebody comes up with some grand plan to punish those filthy rich oil companies. It usually boils down to some kind of targeted boycott. One year the plan was to boycott all Exxon stations. Another year it was to not buy gas on a given day of the week. Another year it was to boycott both Exxon and Shell stations. BP, Super Quick, etc.

It’s my understanding, the whole idea behind these efforts is to create some kind of collective bargaining power, to show consumer muscle in order to ultimately force lower gasoline prices. While it is natural to want to do something to attack the perceived injustice, all of the efforts I have seen suggested suffer from shocking ignorance of how the free market works coupled with childish ignorance of the oil industry.

Most calls for government intervention are founded in frustration and/or a desire to protect one’s turf. Turf protection is why you can’t legally pump your own gas in Oregon, for example. That’s not where Wright is coming from. Many consumers are frustrated with gasoline prices right now. That is understandable.

But most frustrated calls for government intervention are also founded in ignorance of how things really work. I suggest that except for emergency cases, any call for government intervention should be approached calmly and deliberately with an eye on getting a firm grasp on how the matter actually works and what effects intervention is likely to cause. I am not saying that there is never a place for government intervention. I’m simply saying that there is a right way to approach such questions.

From what I have been reading, government intervention or boycotts of gas stations will not work.

But there is a way we all can get through this: “Personal accountability.”

I will give you a website next to give some answers to the above.