“World View” is a term recently popularized by philosophers and media pundits who debate spiritual and political matters.

It refers to the lens through which people see (and therefore interpret) the world around them.

All information and observations must pass through this lens and be colored by one’s World View.

Similarly, there is another “View” I would like to propose for consideration, and I’m calling this the “Money View.”

In my nearly two decades of dealing with people and their finances I have slowly awakened to the fact that how people are doing financially is often a direct result of their “Money View.”

Just as with World Views, there are several very different Money Views, each with its own ramifications. These include, but are probably not limited to, the following:

1.  Money as a Mystery – in which people seem to have no clue how money is made (or retained) and therefore think that others who are successful financially are somehow “lucky”

2. Money as a Master – in which one’s entire life is lived out in bondage to the need for more money, or at least the drudgery of scraping by. This is often accompanied by terms such as, “I have to go to work,” or “Another day, another dollar.”

3. Money as a Monster – this is the condition whereby financial pressures become so large they dominate a person’s thoughts and affect him emotionally. Often at this stage relationships are damaged and health is compromised.

4. Money as a Major – in which a person applies most of his focus and fascination on how to acquire more. In this situation money is an idol.

5. Money as a Motivator – this is the condition whereby money is used to push one to higher achievement and greater contribution. This can be for both selfish or selfless reasons. Beware.

6. Money as a Manipulator – whereby a person uses his or her money to get what he or she wants out of other people. It is here where phrases such as “Money is Power” apply.

7. Money as a Minimizer – the condition in which the presence of money diminishes one’s ambition. This is where complacency and mediocrity reside.

8. Money as a Maximizer – where one is driven to utilize his or her money to make a greater contribution and maximize his or her potential. This is usually much more selfless and altruistic than #5 above.

9. Money as a Monument – where money is used as a status symbol, to build a reputation, or as an attempt to establish an immortal family legacy.

10. Money as a Menace – wherein the money one has is a destructive force in one’s life, either by feeding addictions or by causing fights or by dominating one’s time and energy with the care and maintenance required to sustain it.

In considering this list, it may be helpful to ask yourself some questions, such as:

1. Which “Money View” best represents where you are right now?

2. Which of these “Money Views” have you encountered previously in your life?

3. Notice that several of these “Money Views” are quite negative. What are you doing to make sure you are living under a positive and productive one? Which one would you choose?

4. What are you doing to grow in your financial understanding and education?

In each of the above views we see that money is always used as a Means. The key question in money matters is therefore, “As a means for what?”

This is why the Bible again and again treats money as a heart issue.

Money in itself is not evil, but the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? Money becomes a dangerous or productive tool, depending upon the heart that wields it.

Make sure you choose your “Money View” deliberately and intentionally, don’t simply let it choose you.

Pursue some financial education to enable you to be in charge of money instead of it being in charge of you. And guard your heart when it comes to money, in plenty or in want.

That’s my view.

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Chris Brady co-authored the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, USA Today, and Money Magazine best-seller Launching a Leadership Revolution.

He is also in the World’s Top 30 Leadership Gurus and among the Top 100 Authors to Follow on Twitter. He has spoken to audiences of thousands around the world about leadership, freedom, and success.

Mr. Brady contributes regularly to Networking Times magazine, and has been featured in special publications of Success and Success at Home. He also blogs regularly at Chris Brady.

He is an avid motorized adventurer, pilot, world traveler, humorist, community builder, soccer fan, and dad.

Connect With Chris:

The result of our intermingled modern educational and class systems is too often that the modern citizen feels, as G.K. Chesterton put it, “I have no right to think for myself. I have no right to think at all.”

Lesson One: A major lesson of our modern schooling is that we are all somewhere on the social scale, we should give way to those above us on the scale and look down to those below us.

Lesson Two: Another lesson is that the teacher, the authority, the official, etc. is above us all, and we should always, always, bow to those above us.[i]

Lesson Three: Too many young people also learn that there is nothing worth fighting for—“Always walk away. No matter what!”

In fairness, these lessons come naturally with the advancing of society—but so does national decline. And these things—false lessons and national decline—historically come together.

Surely there is a time to follow authority, to humbly give way to others, to walk away from a fight. All of these lessons are part of a good education, along with the reality that there is a time to stand against authority (e.g. King George, Stalin, etc.), to reject elitism, and to fight for something that matters (against slavery, against Hitler, etc.).

A combination of these lessons is part of any balanced education. An emphasis on just one side of these lessons is mere brainwashing.

As Chesterton said, Joan of Arc “…did not praise fighting, but fought.” The same is true of Washington, Lincoln, and Gandhi. Gandhi taught that violence is not the way, but strength and standing for what is right is essential. Can you imagine Gandhi caving in to the upper class? He would bow, but in the bowing he would stand even stronger for what is right.

To really educate, we must teach all sides of the issues—not simply the behaviors of class society, dependence on authority and walking away from any threat of force. There are things worth fighting for. Each citizen must think deeply and independently. Experts should be listened to, but not worshipped.

Alvin Toffler put it this way:

“Built on the factory model, mass education taught basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, a bit of history and other subjects. This was the ‘overt curriculum.’ But beneath it lay an invisible or ‘covert curriculum’ that was far more basic. It consisted—and still does in most industrial nations—of three courses: one in punctuality, one in obedience, and one in rote, repetitive work. Factory labor demanded workers who show…up on time…take orders from a management hierarchy without questioning…[a]nd perform…brutally repetitious operations.”[ii]

This societal focus naturally influences our citizenry.

Famous for its rich culture and heritage, Burma is also sadly renowned for the brutality of its current regime. Political and armed conflict between the repressive military regime and its opponents have displaced more than 3.5 million people over the years.

This, in turn, has led to a refugee problem that spills over into neighboring countries like India which now hosts nearly 100,000 Burmese refugees.

This influx of refugees has created unique challenges and opportunities for communities within India.

In New Delhi, for instance, many Burmese refugees exist on the margins of the community without legal protection, health, education and other means of taking care of themselves. Even the local poor tend to view the newcomers with suspicion and resentment.

The refugees are not issued work permits which relegates them to the informal work sector where limited, low-paying and back-breaking employment is the norm.  Because the Indian government is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, it takes no responsibility for the the refugees.

This means that the refugees are excluded from mainstream society and are forced to live in the shadows where poor health, language barriers and lack of opportunity combine to keep them shut out.

Fortunately, the need of the Burmese refugees has not gone unnoticed and the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) New Delhi chapter has boldly stepped forward to seek a solution.

The stated goal of SIFE, in this instance, is to play a role in the development and economic sustainability of these long-neglected refugees.

To that end, Project AARAMBH was begun with 3 current initiatives including:

1. Promotion of women based small handicraft entrepreneurial units
-Marketing goods such as handbags, laptop bags, purses, woolens, coats, shawls, all traditional Burmese handmade designs.
-Facilitating professional training for improved skills operations and scalability.
-Engaging the women and leaders of these small units in marketing work to increase their awareness and to network, thus laying the base for sustainability.

2. Placement Cells
-Creating an avenue to help people in the Burmese refugee community who are in need of a job
-Working as a 2 way forum, an interface between the people and the factories and shops which have job vacancies. The objective is to ensure just, sustainable, fair pay work for the refugees while ensuring regularity and consistency for the employers.

3. Outreach
-Reading out to the local population and college students to create awareness about the community and their plight.
-Engaging college students as volunteers in different parts of the project.
-Community initiatives for holistic development e.g. Health Camp

Statesmanship has always been exemplified by those who see a need in the world and who step forward on their own initiative to seek solutions. Project AARAMBH from SIFE in New Delhi is a fine example of how students using their technological and business skills are making the world a better place starting in their own community.

They are living proof that a small, tireless minority can make a bigger-than-life difference simply by getting involved.

If you’d like to help or to learn more about Project AARAMBH you can contact SIFE at parthnsharma@yahoo.in or learn more here.

My oldest daughter asked me recently, “What is the key thing to know about freedom?” I answered, local governance.

The most basic unit of society–above the family–are small councils that include all adults in the decision-making process.

These councils maintain freedom by including in all local decisions the voices and votes of all adult citizens.  They make decisions by majority vote after open discussion.

They also appoint mayors/chiefs, law enforcement leaders, judges and other officials who report directly to the full council of all adults and can be removed by the council.

Any representative state or national government breaks down when citizens aren’t actively involved in governance at the local levels.

In this model, every adult citizen is officially a government official; hence, all citizens study the government system, their role in it, the issues and laws and cases, and think like leaders.

They learn leadership by leading. Without this local participatory system, freedom is eventually lost.

The most successful tribes, communities and nations have adopted this model of local governance.  The result in every society, is increased freedom and prosperity.  No free society has maintained its great freedom once this system has eroded.

Tocqueville called local citizen governance the most important piece of America’s freedom model in maintaining freedom and prosperity.

True Elder Brother

What’s often missing in our politics is what Keller calls The True Elder Brother who says, “Father, my younger brother has been a fool, and now his life is in ruins.  But I will go look for him and bring him home.  And if the inheritance is gone, as I expect, I’ll bring him back to the family at my expense.”

This is an example of citizenry that handles things.  Poor, hungry, in need of education?  We’ll help.  We won’t ask government to do it–we will do it, now, without waiting, without questions. Somebody needs help?  “Here we are–send us.”

Or, “Give us your poor, your tired, your struggling masses yearning to be free.”

That’s what free people do.  The liberal argument (government should use its power and force to fix the problem) is as bad as the conservative argument (it’s their own fault, so too bad for them–let them suffer or let someone help them, but don’t you dare make me help!)

Free people act like free people.  They see needs and they help. They don’t turn to government, or ignore the needs.  Such a society stays free.  If they ever stop being this way, they will lose their freedoms.

The question of freedom is, will people govern or politic?  Will they lead (and spread freedom) or snivel (and lose freedom)?

Our Job as Citizens

When problems arise, free people handle them, leaving to government only matters like protecting national security and fighting crime.  The problem is that in party politics, everything becomes about government.

Liberals want government to fix everything, conservatives want government to stick to national security, law enforcement, education and projects that benefit one’s own state.  Meanwhile, who is helping those in need?

And who is watching the government to ensure our freedoms remain strong?  These jobs are the roles of the citizenry.  But when politics gets involved, we forget and ignore both–and freedom declines.

As citizens we must stop getting caught up in political issues, help those in need, and understand and maintain freedom.  These are acts of self-governance, not politics.

Are we deserving of the title of free people?  Let’s find out.  Suppose that in your neighborhood: Several poor families need help; immigrants come looking to make a living; the environment is being polluted; and several minority families can’t afford college for their children.

Do you call in the government?  Do you comment on how these people should “get off their butts” and fix their lives and do nothing else?  And when the government does something, do you throw up your hands in anger and frustration?

Do you visit the families, make friends, offer the father a better job or get him an interview with a friend of yours, start a scholarship drive for the college-age kids, organize a service project to clean the polluted areas, etc.?

These are the behaviors of people who deserve freedom.

Get Off Your Buts

“But the government won’t let us!” you may argue.  “But if we do the the work, people won’t value it.”  “But I’m too busy supporting my family.”  But fixing this would cost too much”  “It’s their problem–why don’t they do it themselves?”  “But this is a job for government, not for me.”

These “Buts” are not the words of the free.  Free people figure out how to do things right and do the right things.

Far too many people turn to the government–some angrily complain and bluster, others take from the rich and give to the poor–after using up most of the money on administrative expenses.  This is the world of politics.

But true elder brothers, those who are free and think like the free, choose differently.  They see needs and take action.  They wisely think it through and do it the right way.  They solve problems, improve things, and conserve freedom, dignity, and prosperity.

Conservatives value responsibility, morality, strength, and national freedom; liberals prize open-mindedness, caring, fairness and individual freedom.  Both lists are good.  They don’t have to be in conflict.

Indeed, both are the heritage we enjoy from past generations of free people who at their best valued and lived all of these together.

If we would all just be nicer, more caring, more tolerant and helpful, freedom would increase.  If liberals and progressives would all work to provide more personal service and voluntary solutions with less government red tape, we would see a lot more positive progress.

Freedom works, and we need less politics, more freedom.

We should vote and fulfill the other vital roles of free citizens: build our communities and nations, support a government that accomplishes what it should, study and understand freedom, keep an eye on government to maintain our freedoms, and voluntarily and consistently help those in need.

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Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe University, a co-founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd Online.

He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.

Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.

Connect With Oliver:

It’s been decades since Peter Drucker predicted that non-profit organizations would be America’s biggest growth sector, and his foresight has proven accurate.

However, he didn’t foretell one of the leadership trend of our time: Social Leadership.

Political leadership has been a central part of life for centuries, business leadership has caught our imagination for 60 years, and a mountain of self-help books have created classics on success, management, and leadership.

Nevertheless, leadership ideas and methods always seemed to be missing something. The lack was subtle, to be sure; and in an era of predominantly private interest, it went mostly unnoticed.

Yet deep-thinking students of capitalism have long realized that without a sense of caring, service and benevolence, free markets turn on themselves.

Classical economist J.B. Say coined the term entrepreneur to describe those who put unprofitable resources to profitable use; but without an underlying societal ethic of benevolence, capitalistic nations weaken from within and fail to overcome their biggest challenges.

Social Leadership is the creation and growth of businesses with the main objective of solving society’s biggest challenges—from better education to feeding the hungry and from empowering the poor to promoting more freedom.

Instead of seeking profit as their central goal, social leaders see needs in society and set out to fill them. Staying profitable is a means rather than an end in this process, and uplifting society is the true bottom line.

Historically, this has been the realm of non-profit and government institutions, but entrepreneurs have found that marshaling resources to overcoming society’s biggest challenges is often more effective when the profit motive is combined with altruism.

Famous social leaders include Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Robert K. Greenleaf and Buckminster Fuller, among others. Recent international examples are the micro-lending movement which brought Muhammad Yunus the Nobel Prize and the establishment of schools in Muslim countries as described by Greg Mortensen in Three Cups of Tea.

In the United States, several educational institutions have proven to be “chicken-wire Harvards,” as Daniel Coyle called them: Schools from kindergarten through doctoral levels which deliver high quality of education for those who typically can’t afford elite institutions. Many of these schools also deliver a profit for owners and investors.

Likewise, innovative approaches to homelessness, hunger, crime, teen pregnancy and other societal challenges have been dealt with by social leaders. 

Such approaches are often delivered on a small scale and get little press. Marva Collins revolutionized inner-city Chicago schools with a social leader approach.

In downtown Salt Lake City, one doctor runs a full-time clinic that treats hundreds of needy patients each week for free. A first-grade student in Canada raised the money to build 461 wells in 16 African countries.

On the other end of the scale, the drive for quality promoted by social leaders like Steve Jobs made Apple effective in societal change (while also netting a sizable profit). As early Apple leader Guy Kawasaki put it,

“The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning—to create a product or service to make the world a better place.”

Such an approach is promoted by business authors from Jim Ferrell to Steve Farber. Warren Bennis noted that this was a central goal of many successful corporate leaders. 

Our society needs more social leaders. In their absence, government institutions and private corporate philanthropic projects try to solve society’s biggest problems—and in the process, profitable resources are too often rendered unprofitable.

In less civic-minded eras and nations, such problems are ignored until they proliferate and become unmanageable. Social leaders eruditely foresee and develop alternatives to both of these less effective paths. 

Social leadership combines the best abilities and tendencies of genuine political and business leaders, with a dose of Tocqueville-style benevolence which leavens capitalism and makes democracy flourish.

Social leadership is a growing catalyst of many disruptive innovators that help improve societies and nations.

In Greek mythology, the gods punished King Sisyphus by cursing him to roll a boulder up a hill, watch it roll back down, and to repeat this process throughout eternity.  

Too often this coincides with the history of government and societal attempts to overcome our greatest social challenges—from poverty to drug abuse, suicide to divorce, growing private and public debt, etc.

Our day is no exception. Faith in government and corporations is weak, and greater social leadership is called for. 

Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables famously described some of the social problems in his day, but offered few clear solutions. He wrote, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

Through history we have given our rights to kings, rulers, churches and governments in the hopes that they would take care of our problems. So far all have proven inefficient and insufficient.

A new vision of leadership is becoming a reality as more people turn inward for strength and a greater sense of personal mission.

We turn our gaze from podiums and power centers and toward our own communities, resources, and abilities.  

This exemplifies the double entendre in the phrase social leadership: the new leadership is about common people living uncommon lives of service and contribution, and solving social problems.

It is lived by rank-and-file citizens who embrace their responsibility to fix our society’s ills. It is lived by many in business leadership who make a difference.

These are the new social leaders.

Every productive person contributes to the health of society. But much of this is incidental rather than intentional. A social leader deliberately commits his time, talents and resources, and strives to improve the world by creating value for others.

Social leaders work in all arenas of society—they can be wealthy executives, successful entrepreneurs, devoted volunteers or donors, or part-time city council members.

A social leader is born when one ponders such questions as, “What can I do that will have the most positive impact on society? What is the highest and best use of my talents and passions? How will the world be better because of my preparation, education, life, and contribution?”

Social leadership seeks to improve society. Some common, and uncommon, people do this through voluntary sacrifice; others by building profitable organizations that tackle major societal challenges; and still others by getting involved in corporate or political governance.

Social leadership is impacting traditional leadership. Ken Blanchard writes,

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”

Few businesses effectively grow without promoting something bigger than profitability.  The test of social leadership is which comes first in a leader’s priorities: profit or purpose?

This requires more than trendy mission-writing retreats, however. Social leadership occurs where the mission is more than a statement, where it is genuinely and organically intertwined with the intrinsic organizational will. 

If the heart of a capitalistic society is self-centered, it lacks the moral fiber to succeed in the face of inevitable challenges—only a bona fide munificence empowers it with the strength to overcome whatever it faces.

At their core, all successful organizations truly care about people, and all great leadership is social leadership.
Progress is often enacted by an army of common people, rather than by a handful of aristocrats, politicians, or experts.

Social leadership is an idea whose time has come.  The economic meltdown has strengthened our case.

Indeed, we may have reached a point in history where the future of leadership depends on the success of social leaders.

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Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe University, a co-founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd Online.

He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.

Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.

Connect With Oliver:

We only make exchanges when we value what we’re receiving more than we value what we’re giving away.

Economics is the science of the efficient allocation of resources. Through free exchange, all resources—material and otherwise—end up in the hands of those who value them the most, and those who value them the most will generally put them to the best use.

The more exchanges that are made, the wealthier everyone becomes, because value is velocitized.

This principle is explained in my book Killing Sacred Cows, which says:

“If I have a book and you have $10, and we mutually decide to exchange my book for your $10, what were the book and the $10 worth to you? What were the book and the $10 worth to me?

“Most people answer that the book was worth $10 to both you and me. This is exactly wrong. We only give up something in an exchange when we value what we’re receiving more than we value what we’re giving up.

“Hence, there is no way to quantify an exact amount that the book or the $10 was worth to you or me. All we can conclusively say is that to you, the book was worth more than $10 and the $10 was worth less than the book; to me the book was worth less than $10 and the $10 was worth more than the book.

“We both walk away wealthier than before we made the transaction because we both have something that is worth more to us than before.

“We only exchange when others have something that we value more than what we currently have. We never trade like value for like value because we have no incentive to trade like for like.  We trade what we have for what we actually want more.

“In a free market, the final sales price of any object is always an amount that the seller and the buyer both disagree that the object is worth.  Therefore, exchange can only occur in an atmosphere of disagreement.”

This principle alone, when properly understood, overcomes the fallacy of scarcity. Because value is in people, not in things, even if it is true that material resources are finite, people can exchange the same finite material over and over again to create unlimited wealth.

Every time we make a productive exchange, we are wealthier. Thus, according to this principle, everyone can be wealthy even if there’s a finite resource “pie” from which we all share.

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Garrett Gunderson is an entrepreneur, financial coach, the founder of Freedom FastTrack, and the primary author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

Garrett loves inspiring others to turn their potential into production. He has dedicated his life to living and teaching a unique concept known as Soul Purpose that reveals how anyone can live a more prosperous and rewarding life.

As a finance and business productivity coach, Garrett instructs both large and small groups of business owners and financial service professionals nationwide.

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According to Ronald Reagan, some of the most dangerous words were, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”  Reagan in that one little quip summed up what plagues much of the United State’s current condition.

Author W. Cleon Skousen coined the term “Counter-Productive Compassion” to describe what I see displayed across nearly the entire landscape of national candidates for President.

Somewhere, somehow, the American populace got it into their head that “the government” is responsible for solving the people’s problems.

Even most of those on the “conservative” side barely represent a conservative platform.  It seems as though the citizenry has realized that they can vote “benefit providers” into office to serve their individual needs.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s not that we shouldn’t care for the poor.  It’s not that we shouldn’t provide cushion to displaced workers caught in industry shifts.  It’s not that we shouldn’t get involved in addressing a whole host of human needs across our country.  Of course we should.

To do less would be cold, uncaring, and the farthest thing from compassionate.  What I am suggesting is that we merely consider who the “we” is in these sentences.  Exactly who should care for the poor?  Exactly who should help the displaced worker? Our compassion is correct, our implementation is flawed.

Why?

Because, as Reagan indicated, governments are notoriously bad at executing (unless we are speaking of despotic governments, of course, in which case executions are some of their most efficient work).  Have you ever had to work with or inside of a bureaucracy?

If you have (and who among you hasn’t invested hours inside a DMV or Secretary of State’s Office?), you know exactly what I’m talking about.  And the U.S. government, although founded upon some of the soundest political theory and documents the world has ever produced, is the world’s largest bureaucracy.

Worse, it has a nagging little tendency to continue to grow.  With each new “program,” no matter how well intentioned, the pig just gets fatter and bigger and slower and less effective.  What began in compassion ends in a pile of paperwork and waste, with very little, if any, of the intended benefit actually finding its way to the proper recipient.

If that benefit does reach the right place, often times the compassion then breeds entitlement instead of its original purpose.  This is because most government programs, being so bureaucratic, are cold and impersonal, and therefore are not very caring, specific, or good at holding people accountable.

Instead of a hand up, which is what most well-intentioned compassionate people hope to enable the government to provide, it turns into a hand-out.

Let’s look at the principles involved, which I borrow from Benjamin Franklin:

1. Compassion which gives a drunk the means to increase his drunkenness is counter-productive.
2. Compassion which breeds debilitating dependency and weakness is counter-productive.
3. Compassion which blunts the desire or necessity to work for a living is counter-productive.
4. Compassion which smothers the instinct to strive and excel is counter-productive.

So we see that compassion impropery applied leads to bad results.  And we further see that the government is especially gifted at “improperly applying” its compassionate funds.

So if compassion is a dangerous weapon that must be yielded properly so it doesn’t backfire, and if government has continually demonstrated its inability to properly implement compassion, how then should it be handled?

The founding fathers had an answer for this, and it comes from a principle called “fixed responsibility.”  The principle works much the same as the structure of government they instituted at the birth of the United States, in which local governemnts controlled everything except what belonged to the states and national government.

In turn the states handled everything the local governments could not, and finally, the federal government handled only what was beyond the local and state governments.  “Fixed Responsibility,” according to Skousen, works like this:

“The first and foremost level of responsibility is with the individual himself; the second level is the family; then the church; next the community; finally the country, and, in disaster or emergency, the state.  Under no circumstances is the federal government to become involved in public welfare.

The Founders felt it would corrupt the government and also the poor.  No Constitutional authority exists for the federal government to participate in charity or welfare.  By excluding the national government from intervening in the local affairs of the people, the Founders felt they were protecting the unalienable rights of the people from abuse by an over-aggressive government.”

In relation to this, where do you think we are today? And how did we get there? Was it because politicians learned that they could get elected by promising benefits to special interest supporters, thereby “selling votes?”   Or was it because the government must handle these things because individuals, families, churches, and communities will not?

Is our counter-productive governmental compassion a result of power hungry politicians (the kind that can’t really solve the problem they crusade for because then they would be without their base of power)?  Or is it due the selfishness and indifference of individuals, families, and churches in our society?

What do you think?

Which candidates align in what positions in relation to these questions?

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Chris Brady co-authored the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, USA Today, and Money Magazine best-seller Launching a Leadership Revolution.

He is also in the World’s Top 30 Leadership Gurus and among the Top 100 Authors to Follow on Twitter. He has spoken to audiences of thousands around the world about leadership, freedom, and success.

Mr. Brady contributes regularly to Networking Times magazine, and has been featured in special publications of Success and Success at Home. He also blogs regularly at Chris Brady.

He is an avid motorized adventurer, pilot, world traveler, humorist, community builder, soccer fan, and dad.

Connect With Chris:

Those who have read Karl Marx’s writings see the world that he is attacking; those who have read Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Bleak House, or A Christmas Carol will see that same world.

However, we find the world described by Dickens, because it is novelized, less abrupt and perhaps more understandable.

In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol occurs the following exchange:

“Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,” said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit’s robe, “but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?”

“It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,” was the Spirit’s sorrowful reply. “Look here.”

From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.

“Oh, Man! look here! Look, look, down here!” exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility.

Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds.

Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

“Spirit, are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

“Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city.

“Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse! And abide the end!”

“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge.

“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?”

It is easy to sit back and criticize the government for either not doing enough for those who are in real need or for providing entitlements and creating a portion of society dependent on and enthralled to an entity of force.

It’s like shooting fish in a barrel to complain that business is heartless and seeking profit at the expense of the worker.

Where does the responsibility lay? Is it the purview of religion to make sure there is no want or Ignorance?

Is it the isolated role of the education establishment to assure gaining of knowledge, guaranteeing that there will be No Child Left Behind?

Do the specialists in the media have the role of informing, opining, swaying public opinion and in effect telling people how to think?

At whose feet does Dickens lay the problems of Want and Ignorance? At yours. At mine. Are there no institutions to solve the problems? Are there no schools to educate the ignorant?

Why is ignorance persistently present? Are there no TV programs, internet sites, radio programs, newspapers? Are there no welfare programs? Are there no church programs to address the issue of want?

The problems are yours and mine. The solutions will be found in how you and I see the world and our fellow inhabitants hereon.

How often do we find that we use the excuse that Scrooge does early in the book in an attempt to justify Jacob Marley’s existence on earth: “But you were always a good man of business.”?

How often are we too busy, to involved in “working for that which does not satisfy” to recognize what we must be truly about here on this planet?

True social leadership requires some degree of the following attitude:

“Oh! Captive, bound and double-ironed, not to know that ages of incessant labor, by immortal creatures, for this earth, must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed!

Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness! Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunities misused!

When we choose to follow the path of social leadership, we sign up for the burden described above.

We understand that our responsibility is profound and hard. We don’t cast blame on others for the problems of society; we accept them whole-heartedly as our own and understand that only through our actions can these “children of Mankind,” Want and Ignorance, be transformed by lovingly nourishing each other and sowing knowledge and truth.

Action Step: Seek out those opportunities this year that will allow you to take responsibility for your true business.

Remember: “Mankind [is our] business. The common welfare [is our] business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence [are all our] business. The dealings of [our trades are] but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of [our] business!”

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Mike Wilson received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Brigham Young University and pursued graduate work at the University of California, San Diego, where he earned a M.S. degree in Biomedical Sciences prior to obtaining his M.D. at the UCSD School of Medicine.

He lives in Cedar City, Utah with his wife Jenni and their six children and practices emergency medicine in St. George, Utah while working on a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law at George Wythe University. He is also an Associate Mentor at GWU.

Mike’s passion is promoting idea that the common man has power and capacity to affect grand change in the world through true principles of love, goodness, and virtue. Because of his Jeffersonian trust in the common man, he considers himself a “little d” democrat (an ideal, not a political party).

The Man with a Hoe

Edwin Markham

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back, the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?

Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave
To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the dream He dreamed who shaped the suns
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep?
Down all the caverns of Hell to their last gulf
There is no shape more terrible than this–
More tongued with cries against the world’s blind greed–
More filled with signs and portents for the soul–
More packed with danger to the universe.

What gulfs between him and the seraphim!
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of the Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time’s tragedy is in that aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned and disinherited,
Cries protest to the Powers that made the world,
A protest that is also prophecy.

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream;
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
How will the future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings–
With those who shaped him to the thing he is–
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world,
After the silence of the centuries?

This may be so because it can seem like a daunting task; we may feel like small and daily sacrifices just don’t cut it.

We may read accounts of men like George Washington suffering through Valley Forge and think that comparatively our daily efforts are insignificant and meaningless.

This isn’t the case at all; in fact, the best way for us to show public virtue is by making a small yet significant effort every day to make the world a better place.

Without each of us living the proper role of citizens, our republic cannot last.

With this in mind, I have compiled a list of 101 ways that contemporary Americans can display public virtue in small, significant, practical, and consistent ways:

1. Vote
2. Pick up garbage in your neighborhood
3. Read to a child/teach a child how to read
4. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
5. Attend a city council meeting
6. Make a meal for a struggling family
7. Donate money to a non-profit organization
8. Get out and stay out of debt
9. Study the Constitution
10. Volunteer at your child’s school
11. Spend more time with your family
12. Forgive someone who has hurt you
13. Develop a better relationship with God and make an effort to be more religious, i.e. attend church regularly, pray, meditate, read sacred works, etc.
14. Teach a free community seminar on something that you’re passionate about
15. Feed a homeless person
16. Teach a work skill to someone struggling in their career or with finding a job
17. Learn how the electoral college works
18. Write a letter to the editor bringing something important to light
19. Join the political campaign of your choice and volunteer your time
20. Take your neighbor’s garbage can to the street on garbage day
21. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
22. Give anonymous Christmas presents
23. Memorize the Declaration of Independence
24. Memorize the Bill of Rights
25. Run for office
26. Counsel with someone struggling with abortion or an addiction
27. Donate blood and/or plasma
28. Start a community crime watch program
29. Start a local club on financial or constitutional literacy, or anything that contributes to society in a meaningful way
30. Start a book group that reads classics and discusses them at least monthly
31. Join an “Adopt-a-Highway” program
32. Make and keep a goal to eat more nutritious food
33. Make the leap from employee to business owner
34. Make time to call a friend just to tell them that you appreciate them
35. Make a goal to write a gratitude note to one person each day
36. Write a book and donate a percentage of the profits to a non-profit organization
37. Get a college degree, no matter what it takes, and no matter how old you are
38. Urge your family and friends to vote
39. Start a non-profit organization
40. Overcome an addiction
41. Choose a job/career/business that aligns with your passions and life purpose
42. Face and overcome a fear, such as public speaking
43. Read the Federalist Papers
44. Make new friends deliberately and consistently
45. Tell your parents that you love them
46. Tell your children that you love them
47. Give someone a ride that needs it
48. Watch less TV
49. Stand up for someone who is being harmed
50. Write a letter to your senator or congressman to express your views about something important
51. Say you’re sorry to someone you have hurt
52. Start a community organization to help with the problem of pornography
53. Visit people in a convalescent home
54. Learn a new skill
55. Commit to ongoing education, attend seminars, read at least a book a month
56. Babysit for friends so they can go on a date as a couple
57. Forgive a debt
58. Smile and laugh more
59. Do the estate planning that you’ve been putting off, make a will and trust
60. Stop to help someone who is stranded on the freeway
61. Start a garden
62. Put together a one-year supply of food and water
63. Homeschool a child who is struggling in school
64. Make a concerted effort to listen to others better
65. Help someone move
66. Commit to not watch movies, read books, or visit websites that excessively portray violence or sexuality
67. Spend more time in nature
68. Commit to spending at least a half hour every day of quiet, introspective, and reflective time
69. Develop more patience
70. The next time you’e tempted to engage in road rage, even a little bit, don’t
71. Keep the speed limit
72. Study the Federal Reserve (I highly recommend The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin)
73. Do a material resources purge: go through your house and find all of the stuff you don’t use anymore and donate it to a thrift store
74. If you’re considering a divorce, try marriage counseling instead
75. Read biographies of great men and women (Recommendations: The Real George Washington, Up From Slavery, And There Was Light)
76. Start an emergency fund by saving 10% of your income
77. If you’re in a job that you hate, quit and find something that you love to do
78. Volunteer to go shopping for someone who is aged or disabled
79. Visit a developing country
80. Plant a tree
81. Start a family blog that brings your immediate and extended families closer together
82. Start a “Citizen’s Journalist” blog: write about one positive thing you observe in your community every day
83. Write down how you would like to be remembered in detail and share it with everyone you know so they can hold you accountable to bringing it to pass
84. Commit to not duplicating or using music or movies that were not purchased legally
85. Write a letter to yourself
86. Keep your word: if you tell anyone you’ll do anything at any time, do it no matter what
87. Post what your grateful for at World Gratitude Journal
88. Remove graffiti in your community
89. Organize a community concert to benefit a cause
90. Organize a local food drive
91. Volunteer to be a Big Brother/Sister
92. Clean up a local cemetery
93. Help out with an Eagle Scout project
94. Organize a neighborhood garage sale and donate the proceeds to charity
95. Get CPR certified
96. Sponsor a scholarship for a child to attend school
97. Adopt a child
98. Do your genealogy
99. Consistently write in a journal to be used for posterity
100. Adopt a senior that has no family nearby. Take them for rides, shopping, and lunch or a special dinner.
101. Help a single mother with home repairs

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Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.