Trying to be my best spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically. Every day. Shaken, not stirred. John 3:16. Phil 4:6-7. Twitter ain’t real life, people.
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Steve Swanson retweeted
Capitalism is perhaps the most misunderstood economic system in history, largely because it is routinely blamed for the consequences of violating its own principles.
Capitalism means private property, individual rights, voluntary trade, and a government limited to protecting those rights. It is a system in which individuals are free to produce, compete, trade, and prosper without requiring political permission or favoritism.
Cronyism, by contrast, means government granting economic privileges through subsidies, bailouts, tariffs, regulations designed to protect favored businesses, and other forms of political favoritism.
Socialism, communism, fascism, theocracy, absolute monarchy, feudalism, mercantilism, corporatism, and cronyism differ in their doctrines, methods, and objectives. Yet all have permitted political authority or privileged groups to override individual economic freedom.
The fundamental distinction is between voluntary exchange and political coercion.
Under capitalism, economic success depends on creating value that others voluntarily choose to purchase. Under cronyism, political influence can substitute for earning that success through trade.
This brings us to the mixed economy, where elements of capitalism coexist with government intervention, redistribution, regulation, and political favoritism.
When intervention produces unintended consequences, critics routinely attribute those failures to capitalism simply because they occurred in an economy containing private businesses and markets.
That is a fundamental error of causation.
The existence of private businesses does not make every government policy capitalist. Nor does the existence of wealthy businessmen make political favoritism a product of free markets.
A businessman who earns a fortune through voluntary trade and one who obtains privileges through political coercion are operating on fundamentally different principles.
Pure laissez-faire capitalism has never been fully implemented. Yet to the extent economic freedom has existed, it has demonstrated its extraordinary capacity to create wealth, increase productivity, encourage innovation, and raise living standards.
And here lies the great irony.
The remaining economic freedom continues to generate much of the wealth that makes government intervention and redistribution possible, while helping cushion society against their destructive consequences.
Critics then demand further intervention to remedy problems caused or aggravated by previous interventions, perpetuating a cycle in which political power expands while capitalism receives the blame.
Before blaming capitalism for any economic problem, establish whether that problem arose from voluntary exchange or the coercive exercise of political power.
You cannot reasonably condemn a system for the consequences of violating its principles while ignoring the benefits produced when those principles are respected.
“Finally, brethren,whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,whatever things are just, whatever things are pure,whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue & if there is anything praiseworthy,meditate on these things.” Phil 4:8
Steve Swanson retweeted
I often say we live in a deeply left-wing society. A society where the exceptional individual cannot exist, and where everything is organized to make sure he never does.
It starts at school. Minds are formatted to believe everyone is the same. That standing out is suspicious. That succeeding more than others is necessarily unfair.
We ended up confusing two things that have nothing in common: equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. The first is an ideal. The second is leveling everyone down.
The result: anything that sticks out gets shaved off.
And then there was an anomaly in the system.
Elon Musk.
He is in a completely different league from every other tech entrepreneur. And not on just one dimension.
His ability to go all in. In 2008, he put his last millions into SpaceX and Tesla while both were on the edge of bankruptcy. No plan B.
His skin in the game. He doesn't bet other people's money. He bets his own, his reputation, and today his personal safety.
His connection to reality. He doesn't run his companies from a comfortable ivory tower, between two committees and three reporting cycles. Marc Andreessen said it: he isn't aware of any other current CEO who operates the way Musk does. To find an equivalent, you have to go back to the great industrialists of the late 19th century. Every week, Musk identifies the biggest problem at each company, goes straight to the engineer on the front line, and fixes it. 52 weeks a year.
History has always treated this kind of anomaly the same way. Those who broke the established model were almost always rejected, mocked, persecuted.
Socrates, sentenced to drink hemlock for teaching young people to question.
Giordano Bruno, burned alive in Rome in 1600 for imagining an infinite universe.
Galileo, tried by the Inquisition, forced to recant, kept under house arrest until his death.
Gutenberg, who changed the world with the printing press, stripped of his workshop by his creditor.
Lavoisier, father of modern chemistry, guillotined in 1794.
Semmelweis, who understood that simply washing hands could stop women dying in childbirth. Ridiculed by his peers, died in an asylum.
Boltzmann, who defended the existence of atoms against the entire scientific establishment. Died in 1906, just before Jean Perrin proved him right.
Wegener, whose continental drift was mocked for decades. Died in Greenland in 1930, vindicated thirty years later.
Nikola Tesla, who electrified the world, died broke in a New York hotel room.
Alan Turing, who broke Enigma and laid the foundations of computing, convicted in 1952 and chemically castrated. Dead at 41.
Barry Marshall, who had to swallow a culture of bacteria himself to prove ulcers came from an infection. Nobel Prize 2005.
Dan Shechtman, discoverer of quasicrystals, asked to leave his research group. Linus Pauling mocked him, saying there were no quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists. Nobel Prize 2011.
Katalin Karikó, who worked on messenger RNA, demoted by her university and denied funding for years.
Her work made the Covid vaccines possible. Nobel Prize 2023.
The pattern never changes. First they ignore them. Then they mock them. Then they fight them. And they celebrate them once they're dead.
I don't know what form it will take, but I'm almost certain we're heading toward one of two scenarios.
First scenario: the Democrats manage to destroy Musk. We slide into a 1984 where innovating becomes extremely hard. And ironically, it could end very badly, including for the people supporting that project today. A system that crushes its anomalies always ends up collapsing on itself.
Second scenario: he manages to impose his vision of abundance. And for the first time in human history, the person who brought a new paradigm will be alive to see it. And to build it.
Galileo never saw the scientific revolution. Semmelweis never saw antisepsis save millions of lives. Tesla never saw the world run on the alternating current he had imagined.
Musk could see his.
Personally, I think humanity is ready. Neuralink, Optimus, SpaceX. Augmented human intelligence, automated physical labor, space finally opened up. The combination of these three building blocks can do it.
The only question is whether, this time, we let the anomaly see it through.
Are we really going to be dumb enough to hold back the one guy who can take us to abundance, just so we can stay comfortable in our mediocrity?
🤖 Made with AI
Steve Swanson retweeted
So I found this and wanted to share.
This morning, as America wakes up to election results, I want to remind my fellow Christians of something.
Our faith was never meant to rest in a donkey or an elephant. It belongs to the Lamb. Somewhere along the way, we’ve allowed political parties to divide the very people who are supposed to be united in Christ. We’ve placed so much hope in candidates, campaigns, and promises that we’ve forgotten where our hope comes from.
Romans 13:1 reminds us that earthly authority exists under God’s sovereignty. Daniel 2:21 tells us that He changes times and seasons, removing kings and raising up kings. Not a single election result caught God by surprise.
That doesn’t mean every leader is righteous or every decision is godly. It means that even when earthly leadership changes, God’s sovereignty does not. And if we believe a red wave or a blue wave will fix everything broken in this nation, we’ve placed our hope in something that was never capable of saving us.
Washington cannot do what only Jesus can.
A political party cannot redeem a soul. A president cannot heal a hardened heart. And legislation cannot replace the transforming power of the Gospel. Elections matter. Our votes matter. We should care, participate, pray, and stand firmly for biblical truth.
But we must never become so consumed with winning a political battle that we forget the spiritual mission we’ve been called to…making disciples of Christ.
So this morning, whether you’re celebrating, disappointed, hopeful, or fearful, remember who sits on the throne.
His term has no expiration date. His authority requires no election. His promises aren’t dependent on a majority vote.
The sun rose this morning, and Jesus Christ is still King.
The tomb is still empty. The Gospel is still true. And our calling is still the same. Pray for your leaders. Love your neighbors. Stand on Scripture. And never let your political allegiance become greater than your allegiance to Christ.
Because the hope of this nation has never been found in the red or the blue. It has always been found in the blood of Jesus Christ.
#midtermelection #election #america #Jesusisking
Steve Swanson retweeted
🚨 Trump's economic revolution is staggering - and I had TDS for 7 years.
Biased, corrupt media never covered these wins.
✅ GDP grew 3.4% in Q3, beating forecasts and up from 2.2% in Q2
✅ The Atlanta Fed expects 3.4% growth again in Q4
✅ Business investment is up 9.4%, the biggest jump since 2020
✅ Consumer spending is up 3.8%
✅ Layoffs are near record lows, with weekly jobless claims at just 194,000
✅ Consumer confidence jumped 7.5 points in October
✅ Poverty has hit a record low
✅ Median income is the highest on record
✅ Citizens rather than non-citizens are getting more of the new jobs
✅ Mass immigration has stopped
✅ Violent crime posted its largest annual drop, and the murder rate is tying a multi-decade low
✅ Tax fraud, waste and abuse are ending
✅ MAHA is delivering real change, lower prices and fixing the system
Election integrity, tried hard pass The Save America Act. Only to be thwarted by RINOs.
🪙 Trump's Golden Age:
🏭 For the first time in 26 years, the U.S. outproduces Japan in steel
🏗️ The first new U.S. iron ore mine in 50 years, feeding a planned $15 billion Iowa steel mill
🔩 The first new primary aluminum smelter in 50 years, in Oklahoma, which will double U.S. primary capacity once online
🚜 The first U.S.-assembled Volvo excavators are rolling out of Pennsylvania, and John Deere is moving excavator production home
🌾 Potash was named a critical mineral, with a $1.26 billion DOE loan commitment for a new Michigan mine and a USDA-backed Utah project
🧲 Rare earth magnets at scale for the first time in a generation, with a $1.2 billion South Carolina plant breaking ground
💎 Critical minerals reshored, ending 100% import dependence on 15 strategic minerals
🖥️ The first ever complete AI chip supply chain
📈 Manufacturing construction starts are up 20.2%
🔧 Machine-tool orders are up about 37% year to date, the strongest first half since the series began in 1998
🏭 The manufacturing PMI is the strongest since 2022
💰 $18 trillion pledged to restore America's ability to produce at home
🛢️ U.S. oil output tops Saudi Arabia and Russia
⚡ Power plant builds are up 68.5%
🔼 10 new LNG terminals will double export capacity by 2030
⚛️ 10 new AP1000 nuclear reactors
☢️ Nuclear goes from 100 to 400 GW, quadrupling nuclear power by 2050, with restarts underway in PA, MI and CA
Look at Brent crude & WTI after the midterms.
Both are already down nearly 10%.
Obvious Trump was being intentionally sabotaged with Brent crude (City of London financial elites) and gas prices.
I'll take this trajectory over what we had and will have with Democrats. Every. Single. Day.
Pass the SAVE America Act.
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” II Timothy 2:15
Steve Swanson retweeted
After DOGE, Elon came to a conclusion most people missed.
He tried to reform the state from the inside. He failed. And he said it plainly: the government can't fix its own deficit. Nobody in power actually wants to cut. The machine protects itself.
So he drew the only logical conclusion. If the state can't be reformed, there are only two ways this ends.
Either global bankruptcy. Debt keeps compounding, interest payments eat the budget, and the system collapses under its own weight.
Or robots. AI and robotics grow the economy so fast that the debt becomes manageable, and abundance makes the old fights over scarcity irrelevant.
Here's the part almost nobody sees.
For two centuries, capitalism has had a marketing problem. Its gains are real but slow and invisible. 2% growth a year doesn't feel like anything. Your life gets better over 30 years and you never connect it to the system that did it. Meanwhile, the left's promises feel immediate and concrete: a check, a subsidy, a benefit. That's why the left wins on promises even when it can't deliver them. Capitalism produces the wealth, socialism takes the credit.
Robots break that asymmetry.
When productivity doubles in a few years instead of a few decades, people will see it. Things get cheaper, services get better, opportunities appear, in real time. For the first time in history, people will connect capitalism and their rising standard of living directly, almost instantly. The causal chain becomes visible.
And that changes everything politically.
So there are two scenarios.
Scenario one: we stay in the current inertia. No breakthrough, or a breakthrough we regulate to death. The debt wins. Living standards stagnate, then fall. A frustrated electorate turns to whoever promises the most, and that pushes toward a hard collectivist left. But collectivism fails, as it always does. And when it fails, the most organized, most disciplined collectivist force left standing isn't the old left. It's radical Islamism. Bankruptcy, then communism, then something worse.
Scenario two: robots win. Abundance arrives, and it arrives visibly. The link between free enterprise and prosperity becomes obvious to everyone. And this is the key point: it becomes obvious to everyone, including the minorities the left was counting on. Because their long-term incentive is the same as everyone else's. A kid in the suburbs gains infinitely more from a booming, abundant West than from a bankrupt state handing out promises it can't keep. Abundance is the most powerful integration machine ever built.
That's the Western renaissance.
The West doesn't need to win the culture war by arguing. It needs to win it by delivering. And for the first time, it has the technology to deliver fast enough for people to notice.
The race isn't left vs right anymore. It's robots vs bankruptcy.
Steve Swanson retweeted
My father-in-law, suffering from an advanced case of bone cancer, asked to pray as we left his hospital room. He said three things to the Lord:
First, he thanked God for being good in all circumstances, even when it didn’t match our definition of good.
Second, he asked God to help him be a good example to others during his suffering.
Finally, he thanked God for the rich life of blessings he had been given.
I was blown away. This was a man who did not go to seminary. He couldn’t communicate the theology that I thought I had mastered so well. But in that moment, he revealed a deeper and richer understanding of the sovereignty of God than I ever had.
It’s probably the most powerful prayer I can remember.
It seemed that Bert had every right to complain, but he was joyful. He could have asked others to serve him, but he asked God to help him serve others.
Bert didn’t question God and ask “Why me?” He didn’t bring God into the court of his judgement and say, “Is this what I get after a lifetime of serving you?”
No, my father-in-law’s words were edifying. His tongue was pure. His vocabulary was God-honoring. Why? Because the sovereignty of God ruled in his heart, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth spoke (Luke 6:45).
I am deeply persuaded that the primary reason we complain, grumble, and accuse is because the sovereignty of God doesn’t rule in our heart.
When people frustrate us, when our plans are thwarted, and when suffering enters our door, our lips dispense words laced with anger, bitterness, envy, doubt, confusion, and fear. All of these emotions are given room to grow when there is a void of rich understanding and belief in the sovereignty of God.
We have forgotten that God’s dominion is an eternal dominion and he does as he pleases (Daniel 4:34-35). We don’t remind ourselves that his judgements are unsearchable and his ways inscrutable (Romans 11:33). We have neglected to meditate on the truths that God rules over the specific details of our lives for his glory and our good (Acts 17:26-27, Ephesians 1:4-6, 20-22 and many more).
It’s easy for us to proclaim these truths during a Sunday worship service, but at street level, does the sovereignty of God really have deep roots in your heart?
That moment in the hospital was God’s revealing grace to me. He was not rejecting me or condemning me for weak theology, but rather opening my eyes, softening my heart, and wooing my soul to trust in him more.
May our Lord do the same with you today!
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
Steve Swanson retweeted
How do you know God has actually forgiven you?
You confessed it. You meant it. You asked God to forgive you, maybe more than once. And yet it still sits there. It shows up when you try to pray, when you hear a worship song, when you lie awake at night. Part of you wonders if God is still holding it against you, quietly keeping the file open, waiting to see if you’ll really change this time. So you keep apologizing for the same thing, hoping that one day the guilt will finally lift and you’ll know it’s settled.
Here is what Scripture actually says God does with confessed sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:9. Notice the reason given. Not because you confessed with enough tears. Because He is faithful. Your forgiveness rests on His character, not on the strength of your feelings about it.
And He doesn’t just forgive. He removes. “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us,” Psalm 103:12. East and west never meet; you can travel forever and never arrive. “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea,” Micah 7:19. “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins,” Isaiah 43:25. The God who knows everything chooses not to hold it against you. There is no open file.
Remember the prodigal son. He rehearsed a whole speech on the way home, ready to beg for a servant’s place. He never got to finish it. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him,” Luke 15:20. The father wasn’t waiting to be convinced. He was already running.
So why does the guilt linger? Often because forgiveness is a fact before it’s a feeling. The enemy loves to accuse what God has already acquitted. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1. Not less condemnation. None.
Try this: the next time that old memory comes back, don’t confess it again as if it’s still unpaid. Thank Him instead. “Lord, thank You that this is forgiven.” Gratitude is how you agree with what He has already done.
You don’t have to keep carrying what He already took from you. You’re allowed to set it down.
Steve Swanson retweeted
“But what about the deaths caused by capitalism?”
When discussing economic systems, I often highlight how Marxist socialism devastated Africa and other regions of the world, leading to the deaths of millions of people. Inevitably, someone responds: “But what about the deaths caused by capitalism?”
This response reveals a fundamental misunderstanding that needs addressing. It blames capitalism not just for greed, but for all of humanity’s darker instincts, as if free markets somehow invented human flaws.
Let’s get something straight: greed, exploitation, and cruelty have existed throughout human history, long before anyone conceived of property rights or free enterprise.
1/ Greed Predates Capitalism
Long before Adam Smith put pen to paper, humans had already committed unspeakable acts of greed, conquest, and exploitation:
- Genghis Khan ran a brutal empire that expanded through violence and rape. According to genetic studies, around 8% of men in a large region of Asia carry DNA linked to him.
- The Atlantic Slave Trade was powered by kings, empires, tribal chiefs, and European monarchies, most of whom operated under imperial and monarchical structures.
- In pre-revolutionary France, the monarchy, nobility, and upper clergy lived in great privilege and luxury, while the vast majority of peasants (about 80% of the population) endured poverty, heavy taxation, and frequent hunger.
There have always been selfish, greedy, and rapacious people, and there always will be, as long as humans exist. Every economic and political system has had greedy people in it. The difference is whether that system limits their power or lets it run wild.
2/ The Enemies Invented “Capitalism”
The word “capitalism” was coined by socialist critics in the 19th century, including Louis Blanc, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Karl Marx.
They used it to criticize the system they believed would inevitably collapse. Since they coined the term, it means whatever socialists want it to mean. That’s why the socialism vs. capitalism debate is often a Trojan horse to avoid admitting that free markets actually work.
Adam Smith (who is often called the “father of capitalism”) never actually used the word. Instead, he described natural liberty, where:
“Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way.”
(The Wealth of Nations)
John Locke, whose ideas heavily influenced America’s founding documents, focused on natural rights to “life, liberty, and property” in his Second Treatise of Government (1689). He argued these rights existed prior to government, which was instituted specifically to protect them.
When the American Founders created the US Constitution, they didn’t use the word capitalism either. The Bill of Rights protects individual freedoms like freedom of speech, religion, assembly, property, and due process, all of which protect individuals from both tyrants and mobs.
In other words, the core principles we now associate with “capitalism” were never about enriching the few. They were about protecting the many from power, whether it came from kings, mobs, or bureaucrats.
3/ Voluntary Socialism
Here’s the thing: if a group of people want to live communally, they should absolutely have that freedom. Such voluntary arrangements don’t require state coercion or enforcement.
For instance:
- The Amish live simply and share resources, but joining is voluntary, and people are free to leave if they choose.
- Kibbutzim are intentional communities in Israel, traditionally based on agriculture and collective ownership. Membership is voluntary, and individuals are free to leave at any time.
- Monasteries and religious orders have lived communally for centuries and continue to operate around the world, with monks and nuns sharing resources, labor, and prayer.
This is voluntary socialism, and no free-market advocate has a problem with it.
Marxist socialism is something else entirely. It calls for revolution, the abolition of private property, and stateless dictatorships with no respect for individual rights. It caused 65–94 million deaths, with some estimates exceeding 100 million.
It’s worth noting that capitalism even gives people the freedom to experiment with Marxist ideals.
In a free market, you’re allowed to create worker-owned businesses based on Marx’s labor theory of value if you want to. Cooperatives, mutual aid societies, and communal living models can and do exist under capitalism.
Every system has greedy people, but only free market capitalism, rooted in individual rights and the rule of law, limits their power through competition, transparency, and choice.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” II Timothy 3:16-17
Steve Swanson retweeted
My biggest concern is that if there is a clean sweep by Democrats of the House, Senate and Presidency in 2028, they will:
1. Make DC and Puerto Rico states to gain a strong majority in the Senate.
2. Open the borders and legalize everyone living in America illegally to cement a permanent majority.
3. Increase the size of the Supreme Court to gain an immediate majority.
This would result in America becoming a permanent one-party state and the end of democracy in any meaningful sense of the word.
All that is needed to ensure this doesn’t happen is 51 Republican senators in 2029. That is why you should vote for Republican senators this election. Other reasons are irrelevant compared to this one.