I mean socialist ideals....taxing the richer, universal healthcare, ect
(Socialist ideals.... Okay, let us see if I can piece this Biblical story together.
King Solomon created a very weighty poll tax on his citizens which they seemed to tolerate as it brought safety and everyone universally had their own vine and the comfort under their own fig tree.)
1 Kings 4:22-25
New International Version
22 Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors of the finest flour and sixty cors of meal, 23 ten head of stall-fed cattle, twenty of pasture-fed cattle and a hundred sheep and goats, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks and choice fowl. 24 For he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, and had peace on all sides. 25 During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree.
(Then came Solomon's mission to build the Temple of the Lord so he enacted the forced labor of 30,000 men. )
1 Kings 5:13-14
New International Version
13 King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel—thirty thousand men. 14 He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.
(We see that Adoniram and Jeroboam were men in charge of forced labor. )
1 Kings 11:28
New International Version
28 Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the tribes of Joseph.
(In the time of Solomon we see the people putting up with high taxes and forced labor for the sake of security and universal care. But Solomon turned away from God and God used the people and surrounding nations to stir up trouble.)
1 Kings 12:1-19
English Standard Version
Rehoboam's Folly
12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. 3 And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of
Israel came and said to Rehoboam, 4 “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” 5 He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.
6 Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” 7 And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” 8 But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. 9 And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 10 And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. 11 And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”
12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” 13
And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him, 14 he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
15
So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
The Kingdom Divided
16 And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “
What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. 18
Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
( Rehoboam is now in charge as the people of Israel had this grievance, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now, therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us.” Instead of helping to decrease the burden, Rehoboam answered not only would he use whips like his father but scorpions to get them to work. In verse 16, you see the people of Israel as themselves essentially what is the incentive for this labor? Notice they had security and welfare but why was that a burden? Corruption. So they kill the Forced Laborer and the nation splits which would results in civil wars.
John Locke explains why security and welfare just aren't enough.
John Locke:
The American revolutionary generation drew many of its ideas from the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). Often credited as a founder of modern "liberal" thought, Locke pioneered the ideas of natural law, social contract, religious toleration, and the right to revolution that proved essential to both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution that followed.” —
https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1257/john-locke
“TO understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.
A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another; there being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty.” -John Locke
God gives us human rights like life, liberty, and property. With these rights in the natural state or perfect freedom, we would be the one provider and protector of our rights within natural law. Just like a mother bear in her natural right protects her cubs. But human corruption and sin make perfect freedom not as appealing to the majority (think of the show Mountain men) as it takes great work to survive in perfect freedom. Locke explains the nature of civil society.
“Wherever, therefore, any number of men so unite into one society, as to quit everyone his executive power of the law of Nature, and to resign it to the public, there, and there only, is a political or civil society.” John Locke
A group of people gives up perfect freedom to live as freedom restrained (liberty) with the unified goal to be better protected from enemies and to be prosperous enough so all may benefit. In every society, we give up absolute freedom to abide by the laws of the land. The inner nature of perfect freedom is ingrained in every individual even if they are not willing to obtain it. But that inner nature creates an invisible hand in the sociological political system.
If the governing forces fail to properly weigh the scale of balance then the inner nature of men begins to hold grievances against the state.
Many of us are not physically whipped to work but we are forced to labor, for example, stop paying taxes, the need for food, a house, a good credit score, etc. Socialized welfare systems designed for certain classes, ages, gender, or the racial ethnicity of the person determines ones classification for such support. The rich class can afford higher taxes and often get tax breaks. The lower class often sees the most benefit from the welfare system. The middle class making up the majority of the state makes the rich richer and the taxes to support welfare kills the incentive of the middle class. Corruption takes hold as people abuse the welfare system where more middle-class people purposely quit their job or live in the lower class to get the government benefits. Putting more strain on the middle class. Not to mention the social ills of sin get very expensive in taxes for the government to try and fix.
Sin and corruption are in every eco-political system. In capitalism, we do see greed, unrestrained monopolies, and a 3-class system versus a social/communist 2-class system of the lower to an elite class.
The UK is only a fraction of the American land mass where the UK is one state versus America's 51 states united. Each state carries its own laws with much liberty to govern itself. Federalized healthcare would be a disaster just like what our Veterans have to deal with the poor healthcare of Veteran Affairs which is federalized. Government wastes money with no incentive to do better as they are one giant monopoly with no competition.
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