Saturday: The Trend in America to Distribution According to Need
WEEK 17
SATURDAY
THE TREND IN AMERICA TO DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO NEED
Luke 21:1-4
We noted yesterday that God apparently does not approve of too little or too much. God seems to be bearing down on the necessity of distribution according to need.
Interestingly enough, that seems to be the tendency in world development. Socialists and Communists frankly say they want distribution of economic goods according to need. And they intend to get it by collective action—the socialists by the ballot and the Communists by the bullet, if necessary—but by force in any case.
But there is a third development taking place—partly by compulsion and partly by impulsion. That third development is seen in America. We are slowly but surely coming to distribution according to need.
When the Ford Company announced the principle that if you don’t raise the wages of the workers, they will not be able to buy back your products, it was important. To lift the other is to lift yourself. If you don’t meet the other’s needs, you don’t meet your own. A generation or so ago, those who had wealth put up huge mansions, far beyond their needs. In large measure they served for show. Result? Those huge mansions have become white elephants; they are being cut up into apartment houses or being given away to charitable organizations for the public benefit. Why? They didn’t meet a need, and hence they ended in futility and frustration. Houses are now being cut down to need—perforce!
Take another important development. Why did the richest nation on earth begin at the close of the war to distribute its wealth throughout the world, not by millions but by billions? We did it partly through fear of Communism and partly through Christian impulse. We saw that if we didn’t meet the needs of the depressed and despairing portions of humanity, they would turn to Communism. So the fear of Communism became the beginning of social wisdom. But we also gave these millions because our Christian conscience felt that these depressed millions were in need and we must do something to meet that need.
O Christ, you are knocking at the door of our hearts, knocking through these clamoring needs of others. Help us to hear and to respond and do it quickly. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I shall watch the movements of God and follow them, for God wills the best for us.