A Warning to Capitalism:

People think of evil dictators and oppressive governments when communism and socialism are mentioned. They think of Stalin and Mussolini.

When Capitalism is mentioned, it is more frequently than not, thought of as a positive form of economic system. At least that is the case in the United States and other democratically-based governments.

But all three forms of economic systems are imperfect designs created by imperfect creators.

Hands of socialist and communist citizens strain against their fetters while reaching heavenward, and the hands of capitalist citizens are unrestrained and stretch so far skyward that their fingertips are scorched by the sun’s flames.

Today our country is in the middle of its most significant recession since the Great Depression. Companies are struggling to survive. Employees are fearful of their next corporate decision to be handed down. Unemployed people quickly become disenfranchised by the entire process of their job search because technology has essentially eliminated the human element from human resources in corporate America.

Capitalism for the past three decades in the United States has progressively turned into the “All you can eat buffet of America.”

As access to credit became easier, citizens, small businesses and corporate blue chips became gluttons feasting on their future incomes. Americans became consumers; not producers. To live up to that reputation, Americans leveraged their future incomes more and more. Meanwhile, China evolved into America’s resource for all things manufactured from televisions and cars to children’s toys and dog food.

We outsourced manufacturing to other countries because we were too evolved to perform those jobs and audaciously believed out sourcing the jobs would help those “Third World” countries eventually enjoy an equal standard of living.

We let our education slip and our schools become trailer parks because of inadequate funding for expansion. As America’s prosperity out-paced the entire world, we forgot everything comes from our Creator. We became, in our own minds, self-sufficient.

Now the house of cards has begun to collapse. Our society of materialism and credit is being destroyed from within. As our citizens have lost their moral compass, so have the executives who lead our industries.

We have pushed the boundaries of our morals. We have capitalized on the destruction of our own future. We have become moral relativists and rationalized why we step on the backs of those in front of us.

Capitalism in the hands of citizens without a moral compass and without self-restraint is as dangerous a threat to democracy as Nazi Germany and Al-Qaeda.

As civilized as we may believe ourselves to be, we are only a few short hours from regressing socially to the savagery of our knuckle-dragging cousins a few thousand years ago.

If you don’t believe me, then you need to recall how quickly our social decorum disintegrated after only a few days without gasoline in Nashville during the summer of 2008.

People were shoving and fighting each other in the gas station parking lots. Police were called to direct traffic because people were backed up into the streets to get gas. Citizens frantically horded gasoline as though that was the resource that held our society together.

Don’t misunderstand me. Our country is great and will survive this recession. Our economy will bounce back. The more than 4 million unemployed people will soon be taking their Monday through Friday commute from suburbia to corporate America again.

But when we ask ourselves who should be held accountable for our economic downturn, the answer is in the mirror. What lessons will we learn? How will we change our behavior? More importantly, what priorities and values will change?

Which will be more important on the other side of this recession: the flat screen television purchased on credit, or Sunday morning church service and the search for America’s moral compass?