This post is dedicated to Doug and Sheri Stroh. They exemplify free enterprise principles at their best. Doug owned a furniture business and Sheri worked on a commission basis before they joined the Team. They have utilized the free enterprise system and developed into some of the best leaders on the Team. Doug and Sheri are living proof that it is not where you start, but how far you go from where you start that counts. Laurie and I are very proud of them.
Proverbs 1:14-16 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
Today’s verses teach against communism and spell out the punishment for anyone attempting such a man centered idea on earth. Communism has failed wherever it has been attempted and has produced more misery than any other economic system. Why have so many seemingly intelligent people supported this bankrupt system? I think the answer can be traced back to a rejection of God. The communist system is based upon the works of Karl Marx who drew his inspiration from Charles Darwin.
Communism is a system that abolishes private property and everything is owned by the state. Communism believes everyone will work their personal best and put all the wealth in a pot to draw on equally among the citizens. There are two major problems with this. First, whoever is in charge of the state always takes liberties to ensure they stay in power and to justify why they deserve more than their fair share. 
Lenin, the founder of Communist Soviet Union defined dictatorship as power that is limited by nothing, by no laws, that is restrained by absolutely no rules, that rest directly on coercion. Second, no one wished to give their best efforts so someone else could gain at their expense. Outside of threats, there was no way to motivate people to work. The workers cynically explained, “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.” Communism was based on an inaccurate view of man. Communism believed man was perfectible and not fallen by nature. Because of this, communist dogma insisted man would willingly work to benefit all mankind with no thought of personal reward and others would willing accumulate the wealth of the state with no thought of a special deal. Both misguided thoughts were dead wrong!
I have the three P’s to explain what is wrong with Communism and what is right with Free Enterprise. The first is Private property. No system will work that is not based on the right to own property. The ancient Greeks were the first group of people to develop the idea of property as a commodity. Because of this, they were the first to deal with the inequalities of wealth created by different levels of performance. Free enterprise believes inequalities are a given and slowing down the front of the train for the caboose only hinders the whole system. Communism took a different approach. They believe by taking all private property and giving it to the state that inequalities would be eliminated and a heaven on earth would result. History has proven the fallacy of this evil concept. The Bible—over 2000 years before Communist Russia—had clearly stated the result of these foolish ideas. Private property is the bedrock of free enterprise and anything that reduces property rights also reduces freedoms. If you thought you owned a field and worked hard for years to develop the best acreage in your county—imagine your shock if you learned it could be revoked at any time. If the farmers knew it could be revoked at the states discretion—who would apply their personal best to the field? Free enterprise gives the field and 100% ownership to the farmer; Communism takes the field and 100% ownership to the state with the farmer an employee of the state, Nazi Germany tolerated the farmer owning the field, but treated it as an irrevocable trust to be repealed at states discretion.
The second is Power. Every form of Communism ultimately falls into the hands of power hungry statist who desire control and perks. Lord
The third is Press. Because the Communist system did not work the press had to be controlled or else the truth would get out. I have learned that anyone attempting to control the free flow of ideas is fighting a losing battle. The communist had all the facts against them, but instead of admitting they were wrong, they attempted to control the press and keep the facts hidden. Andropov, the former head of the KGB and successor to Brezhnev, had warned that relaxing controls on speech could bring the whole Soviet system down:
Too many groups have suffered under the repression in our country. . . . If we open up all the valves at once, and people start to express their grievances, there will be an avalanche and we will have no means of stopping it.
The only way to stop a genuine criticism is to address and fix the root cause. In order to do this with Communism, they would have to scrap the whole system and admit their error. This was too much to ask the fallen humans who had perks and power even though the people were suffering greatly from their errors. Boris Yeltsin the first elected head of state of
The last verse in this set of proverbs states, “. . . they make haste to shed blood.” The Bible is again true to life. The estimated global number of humans sacrificed on the altar of Communism is between 85 and 100 million people. This is over twice the amount of deaths caused by the two world wars! Lenin said, “In order to make an omelette, you will have to break some eggs.” The problem with this is: Human beings are infinitely more valuable than eggs and we are still waiting to see the illusory omelets. God Bless, Orrin Woodward
