Deficits and Contraception: Pleasures Without Responsibility
In 2011, English historian Paul Johnson penned an article titled “Debt: A Moral Issue.” In this article, he wrote: “There is nothing wrong with borrowing money. It's a natural part of the capitalist system, whereby those who are frugal and have savings are enabled to use them to help those who wish to expand their businesses, receiving reasonable interest on the loans. But if you borrow, three conditions are necessary for your actions to be righteous:
The money borrowed should be of reasonable size commensurate with your resources and prospects.
From the outset a program of repayment should be in place.
The repayment plan should have priority over any other commitment, especially any personal spending plans.”
As our government goes ever deeper into debt, there exists little or no concern for meeting any of these conditions. Instead, the political conversation revolves around how we should spend even more money and incur more debt. Those who insist that we must cut spending are portrayed as selfish, heartless wretches, and dismissed like The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
The United States is not exempt from the laws of economics. One can’t indefinitely spend more than one takes in! As socialist countries have demonstrated again and again, the usual result of reckless spending is hyperinflation (debasing the currency), government seizure of savings, crushing taxes, or repudiation of debt.
It’s hard to believe that until 1913, there was no federal income tax! Imagine, the US government got along for over 100 years without a federal income tax. As this is written, our gross national debt amounts to $28 trillion, or $223,000 per taxpayer. (source: https://usdebtclock.org/) None of this bodes well.
One can see similarities between deficit spending and what is called “the contraceptive mentality.” Those who practice contraception enjoy the pleasure of marital relations while at the same time repudiating responsibility for the natural consequences of these actions. Is there a connection?
In 1921, the National Council of Catholic Women opposed spreading information about the use of contraceptives. They wrote that the husband and wife would “come to regard each other as instruments of sensual gratification… A practice which tends to produce such exaggerated notions of what constitutes hardship, which leads men and women to cherish such a degree of ease, makes inevitably for inefficiency, a decline in the capacity to endure and to achieve, and for a general social decadence… Finally, (it) leads to a decline in population…”(Source: Pivot of Civilization, by Margaret Sanger, pages 192-3) An article in the March 5 Wall Street Journal, “Pressures from Covid Spark Pregnant Pause,” would seem to bear this out. There, a 36 year old osteopath says she is delaying marriage and child bearing because of her concern over “financial stability.”
Charles Rice, in his book *Contraception & Persecution, says that by contracepting--- that is, by saying “We, not God, will decide when and if human life begins.”--- is a violation of the 1st Commandment. *(St. Augustine’s Press, pages 3, 70 and 83)
In 1948, Fulton Sheen, in his book Communism and the Conscience of the West*, warned that Americans were adopting the anti-family philosophy of the Communist Soviet Union. He wrote: “The family is the barometer of the nation. What the average home is, that is America. If the average home is living on credit, spending money lavishly, running into debt, then America will be a nation which will pile national debt on national debt, until the day of the Great Collapse.” * (note: this book is available through joyfulcatholic.com)
In Deuteronomy (28:15 and 43-44), Moses warns “But if you do not hearken to the voice of the Lord, your God, and are not careful to observe His commandments … The alien will lend to you, not you to him. He will become the head, you the tail.”
If Divine Law is cast aside as normative, says Professor Rice, then the State will fill the vacuum, deciding good and evil. All this portends a collapsing society in which the state assumes the role of God and increasingly persecutes the Church and all those who adhere to Divine Law. Professor Rice’s response and the response of this station, is to: 1) Speak the Truth with clarity and charity; 2) Trust in God; and 3) Pray.
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Viva Christo Rey!