What Is Caesar's Share?
In Matthew 22:15-21, the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking Him whether He thought it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Seeing through their malice, Jesus asked to see a denarius and asked them whose likeness was on it. When they said Caesar’s, He made His well-known response of “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” A key point of His response, I believe, is not that God Himself needs a share of earthly treasure (He already owns it all), but that Caesar’s rightful share is neither more nor less than what is needed to govern properly – and the rest should be retained by those whose labor produced it to use in a responsible way, which includes helping those less fortunate.
Today in America, Jesus might give the same general response with a dollar bill, except He’d refer to Washington instead of Caesar. A basic question for us, then, is what would be Washington’s (DC’s) share? From a contractual point of view, the DC share should be enough to run the central government as provided for in the contract (the Constitution) – i.e., the ordinary and necessary expenses of providing national defense, maintaining a stable currency, regulating interstate commerce, and a few other enumerated responsibilities. But clearly, DC has ventured far beyond what the contract allows – and at a huge cost that literally steals from taxpayers (God’s stewards).
A major part of this problem is so-called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which postulates that “there is no need to worry much about the national debt and deficits, because the government can print and spend as much money as it wants…to achieve [its] goals…” (quoted from The Epoch Times, 3/9/22). Historian Victor Davis Hanson describes MMT as a “silly university idea [that] claimed prosperity would follow [by] vastly expanding the money supply, keeping interest rates at de facto zero levels, running huge annual deficits, piling up unsustainable national debt, and subsidizing workers to stay home.” Even liberal economist Larry Summers says the idea that a big economy can keep printing money in the face of inflation is “magical thinking.”
MMT proponents say the US is a big economy that issues currency, so there’s no danger of insolvency. But sensible adults see MMT as a delusion that may run for a while until, say, the dollar is so debased that it’s replaced as the world’s reserve currency and our debt is called in – or until (if) the World Economic Forum’s goal of one-world government with a single digital currency is realized. Either way, the result for the US and most Americans would be hyperinflation, followed by economic collapse. Inflation is already high because too much money (from government printing) is now chasing shortened supplies of goods and services. Typically, if hyperinflation happens, it wipes out savings, raises prices much faster than stagnated wages can handle, and hurts the poor most of all.
How close are we to fiscal oblivion? The US debt now tops $39 trillion (not counting over $250 trillion in unfunded liabilities like Social Security, Medicare, etc.) – and is close to 140% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – that’s over a third more than what we produce in a year. (Compare that to 32% of GDP in 1982.) So far, we have “gotten by” not only through the printing press but also because the Fed held interest rates at artificially low levels for a long while. But if the Fed returns to a rate of, say, 6%+ to curb inflation, the cost to taxpayers of our debt interest would be over $1.5 trillion a year. That would leave much less for other scheduled government spending, which would mean more printing and borrowing. The government can print money, but it can’t print wealth or value.
And many (most?) of our leaders want to dig the hole deeper. During the previous administration, the largest tax dollar increase in history was proposed. The increases included a “billionaire’s tax” that would be borne by the very top tier of US households. It called for an annual minimum 20% tax on all gross income, including an investment-killing capital gain tax on unrealized gains (i.e., gains in value before capital assets are sold). Fortunately, those proposals didn’t pass – but now, trillion dollar+ budget deficits have become routine. Also, the left continues to push for a higher corporate tax rate. Besides putting our producers at a disadvantage with foreign competitors, it would lead to consumers paying higher prices. And now, the president’s tariffs have been leading to higher prices for many goods and to other trade problems.
Aside from MMT’s major delusion that DC can keep on growing new money in the back garden, there are other considerations that seldom or never enter the minds of our feckless leaders – like the difference between productive debt and non-productive debt. As you’d expect, productive debt is debt used to finance productivity. Well-run businesses frequently borrow money to fund both short- and long-term strategies. Even governments use productive debt – e.g., to repair or build infrastructure, or to buy or replace equipment, especially military equipment. Typically, these projects are carried out by contracts with the private sector – thereby creating new wealth for contractors and sub-contractors (profits), for the workers involved (income they might not have had otherwise), and for the people at large (value in terms of use, protection, etc.) – all of which ultimately equals or exceeds the original debt. In short, it’s money flowing from taxpayers back into the private sector, including some for re-investment.
Non-productive debt, on the other hand, is almost solely the province of government. For example, when government uses debt (including money printing) to finance a system of transfer payments (welfare, food stamps, “stimulus” payments, subsidies, etc.), no new wealth is created – and when individual recipients use these payments to fund consumption, wealth is, in fact, destroyed. Relative to this point, I recall that several years ago, someone did a study showing that out of every dollar used for federal welfare programs, the recipients actually received about 40 cents in cash or value. Thus, although some of the transfer payments flow back to the private sector and are consumed, much of the money disappears into the DC bureaucratic swamp.
One thing we need to remember is that government itself produces nothing that’s saleable – nothing with an inherent market value (unless there’s a market for red tape). That’s just one of the reasons for limited government. And that’s why most government debt today is non-productive, including wasteful duplication of state bureaucracies, wasteful programs that don’t work but are continued (to preserve government jobs), and incompetent administration of most everything. Examples abound – education, environment, welfare, housing, health insurance, woke programs, etc.
Can our fiscal slide (and printing presses) be stopped or at least slowed down? DC’s favorite remedy is to raise taxes, but if all else remains the same, it buys little time in the grand scheme of things. The best way is for DC to cut spending drastically, pass only balanced budgets, and move out of education, health care, welfare, most environmental issues, and other unconstitutional areas that are reserved for the states. But cutting spending and observing no-trespassing signs are not in DC’s collective DNA.
Many say that what is unfolding here and elsewhere is part of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Great Reset – i.e., a long-term strategy for one-world government that would replace failing national economies and currencies with a single world economy and digital currency, all controlled by a cadre of “experts,” namely the WEF. Small businesses and private property would necessarily disappear – and large businesses would no longer be based on the private shareholder model but instead would be responsible to socially conscious “stakeholders” – “experts” in areas such as environmental sustainability, racial and gender equality and equity (WEF endorses Critical Race Theory), and open borders.
Specifically, the WEF has been quietly pushing policies that would strain and drain national currencies and economies – like MMT, climate alarmism, and pandemic fears. They are also influencing university curricula – e.g., their Global Leadership Fellows program has revived the dream of one-world government in academia – and many universities in the US, Canada, and Europe advertise for positions in “global governance.” WEF also offers a Young Global Leaders Initiative program – which, according to WEF founder Klaus Schwab, has been attended in the past by political figures like Pete Buttigieg, Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, and Justin Trudeau.
Thus, it may happen that most of “God’s things” will soon be taken from His rightful stewards by one or more modern Caesars (DC, globalists, a foreign power, etc.) – unless we, with God’s help, force our leaders into a drastic change of direction. Of course, nothing can work long term unless we first bring God back to our public square, because we need to rebuild on rock, not on sand. Is there time? It depends on God’s planning. But according to The Fate of Empires (John Glubb), the average lifespan of all great empires or societies is 250 years, which means America’s “expiration date” may be this very year. So, starting in our churches, we need to pray and work for a speedy Christian revival!
Norbert J. Kuk