God Made Us Rich | Episode #186

The Christian Economist | Dave Arnott

Our creativity comes from being made in the image of God. That creative innovation is best expressed in time-price, defined as how many hours we work to buy something. We're rich. Would you like to pay for your breakfast and get eight free? Wanna pay only 2% of your air conditioning bill? How about paying less than 5% of the marked price for a bicycle? God has made us rich by making us creative, in His image, and according to time price, you are getting those discounts on just about everything you buy. But first: How did we get here? Made in God’s Image Where does creativity come from? Well, for the Christian, the answer is pretty simple: We were made in God’s image. Another way of saying it is, we were created by the creator to be creative. That explanation is well-received by my students at Dallas Baptist University. I often wonder how creative innovation is explained at secular universities. It’s the first part of what’s sometimes called the three-chapter gospel: Creation, Fall, and Redemption. We were created in the Imago Dei, or in God’s image. We are NOT gods, we’re not even little gods, but we are made in His image, and we believe that’s the source of our creativity. The Hockey Stick of Prosperity Humans were poor in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Very few people were rich, and those are the ones we read about Abraham, Solomon, etc. However, a substantial percentage of the population was poor. By some estimates 25% of the first century population were slaves. We used to ask “Why are people rich?” And now we ask “Why are people poor?” Because such a small percentage of the world’s population is poor. People living in abject poverty has been reduced from 44% to just over 8% in MY lifetime. That’s one of the most astounding economic statistics you will ever hear. What changed? How did we accomplish The Great Escape, as 2013 Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton called it, in his book by that name? Jonathan Heidt has called it “The most important diagram in human history.” Don Boudreaux at George Mason explains it as the Hockey Stick of Human Prosperity in a very convincing YouTube video. Where does the hockey stick turn up? 1776. Three things happened in the same year. There was a political revolution, a technological revolution, and an economic revolution. First, political: Americans remember it was the year of arguably the greatest political revolution in history when the United States declared its independence from Britain. Scotsman James Wilson signed both the Declaration and the Constitution. Second, the technological revolution occurred when James Watt perfected the steam engine. It was the first form of non-muscle power that could be moved to any location. Third was the economic revolution instigated by the writing of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. How about this: All three of these Scotsmen: James Wilson, James Watt, and Adam Smith were at Glasgow University from 1859-1762. Think about walking into a pub and asking, “Who are those three guys?” Would you arrive late for a lecture, when it featured a panel of futurists that included James Wilson, James Watt, and Adam Smith? Honestly, I just stumbled onto this amazing providence, and I’m not sure what to do with the information. I read a book titled How the Scots Invented the Modern World. However, it concentrated too much on the military battles and not enough on the three revolutions I was interested in. I think there was something going on in their religion, but I don’t have the details yet. I know they had been pretty strict Calvinists, who believed that their lives were predetermined for them. But somehow, the spirit of creative innovation was alive in the mid-18th century in Scotland, and the world is richer today because of it. Time Price How do we measure our wealth? Sometimes in my DBU class, I have claimed that gas is cheaper for my freshmen this year,