Catholic Fundamentalists search for quantification, using Scripture and Church teachings as a guide. Searching for hard numbers used to be common in Catholic theology. A hundred years or so ago, one dividing line between a mortal (damnable) and venal (purgatorial) theft was computed to be $20.00.
Adjusted for inflation, that may be as much as $2,000 in today’s money. A guide, once established, tends to be useful.
We can check out the status of our own soul by using the above figures. First, we have to determine if it takes multiple thefts that amount to $2,000.00 to send us to Hades, or if it takes one, intentional theft of $2,000.00 to do so.
It seems unreasonable that there are many people whose conscious actions or inactions have not cost their neighbors at least $2,000.00.
So, all of us should be thankful that The Church has provided the Sacrament of Confession (Catholic Fundamentalists have a hard time getting used to “Reconciliation”. It’s the only hope we have, except for the possibility of direct forgiveness. We all know that can be a lot more flexible than having our sins analyzed and forgiven by a man who’s experienced and has insight as to the sincerity of our innermost being.
Truth in numbers, Part II
God has a formula that determines how many non-productive people a country can support.
We get an inkling by looking at obese people. We know that when a person gets too fat to move, he will die. The same thing happens with countries. Those carrying too much fat are conquered, plaralyzed by the most bloated parts of their bodies.
It’s sometimes hard to tell who’s useless. When one farmer could grow enough food for two people, we needed almost fifty times more farmers. Now, one farmer can grow enough food for a hundred people. Five thousand people in the right kind of factory can make enough cars for a million people. Before American textile mills were destroyed, one mill could make all the cloth that millions of people could use. What happened to those displaced by new technologies? They either gained new skills, retired, rotted, or went to work for government agencies.
Automation caused new government agencies to pop up like mushrooms.
If we total up all that is bought and sold in a free market, and divide it by the number of people needed to produce, transport, and sell all those things, we get the number of productive jobs that a free market needs.
The country with the highest percentage of people doing useful work does the best. The more featherbedding or bureaucratizing, the worse for everyone, especially those involved.
