There seems to be a lot of controversy going on right now about “capitalism” and the free market…particularly as it relates to Mit Romney’s political campaign and government bail outs.

There are a lot of people who are a lot smarter than me chiming in on the topic, but I have a few thoughts:

1. Nobody has the right to a job. We have the right to pursue happiness, which includes the right to pursue a job, but nobody is owed a job. We have to earn it. It is not the government’s responsibility to provide us a job. It wasn’t Mit Romney’s responsibility to provide people jobs at Bain Capital. His responsibility was to his family and himself…namely, to make a profit and provide income.
   
   I don’t think there was anything inherently wrong with him purchasing a company and firing a lot of people. And I say this as someone who was recently laid off from a job due to economic reasons.
2. Capitalism isn’t inherently “bad.” Socialism, for that matter, isn’t inherently “bad” either. They, in their purest forms, are just economical systems. While people who use (or maybe abuse is a better word) those systems might be bad or have bad motives, a system can’t be morally bad (unless, like communism, they seek to strip people of their moral rights).
3. We, as individuals and families, do have a Biblical responsibility to use the resources that we are given (by God), to help those around us.  Whether we gained those resources through a capitalist system or a socialist system or whatever system, we are called to help those in need. It is not the government’s role to regulate how we do that. It is a personal responsibility/decision.

Those are some random thoughts that came to me this morning as I was watching the news. Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think. Feel free to push back.