Dennis Campbell
June 26, 2008
Giving thanks for a life of luxury
By Dennis Campbell

Lately, I've been giving heartfelt thanks to God for allowing me to live a life of pure luxury. No, I'm not rich, just a working guy making a living like most folks. But I have been blessed to live in America, and being an American almost by definition means living in luxury.

Consider: When I leave work, I get into my pickup truck and turn on the air-conditioner (or heater in the winter) for my drive home. When I get home, I have running water and that wonderful invention of the modern world, indoor plumbing.

It wasn't that long ago that a "bathroom" was a hole in the ground with some sort of structure around it to provide a modicum of privacy. Toilet paper? Forget it. Think of a corncob or a handful of grass.

Out here in New Mexico a century or so ago people traveled by horse, or horse-drawn carriages, buggies and carts. Horses leave behind, um, well, manure. It was everywhere, especially on the soles of your shoes and boots. It was also on the feet of flies, which then walked on your food. As likely as not, since there was no refrigeration, your food was semi-spoiled anyway, so what was a little manure?

Water was hauled from a distance, perhaps drawn from a well or through a hand pump. When you finished bathing, you dumped the dirty water and did it all over again the next time.

My grandparents homesteaded in Nebraska and lived in a sod house. That's right, a house made from dirt. Can you imagine what it was like in the broiling Nebraska summers and frigid winters?

Today, when it gets hot I move a lever on my thermostat and my house cools off. When it gets cold, I move the lever in another direction, and in a few minutes the house is warm.

This is luxury.

In the old Soviet Union, under the boot of communism, one of the worst economic systems ever and one, astonishingly, many in this country would like to see us emulate to some degree, scarcity was the norm.

People would stand in line for hours to buy moldy bread and poor quality produce, mostly potatoes, beets and cabbages. If they were lucky, they might find some sort of meat.

Today, we can walk into Smith's or Safeway and find an almost incomprehensible array of fresh produce and meat, packaged foods and tasty, nutritional meals we can heat and enjoy in a matter of minutes.

This is nothing less than luxury.

My satellite television system provides choices in programming barely conceivable as little as 50 years ago. I can get on the Internet and choose among billions of websites for just about anything I want. It's like the world's largest library.

A number of years ago, a buddy and I traveled overseas and ended up in Morocco. There, I saw beggars who were clothed in what could only be called rags, with no shoes or sandals, unsure of their next meal. Here, today, I can buy any kind of clothing I want, and if I shop on-line I don't even have to leave my home.

We live in luxury beyond anything the wealthiest people could have enjoyed in the past. Solomon, with all his wealth and possessions, did not have the convenience of a telephone, could not drive around his kingdom in a recreational vehicle, and could not travel in a jet airplane or vacation aboard a cruise liner.

Everyone of us should be on our knees daily thanking God for giving us the best system of government ever devised. It is amazing to me that America is steadily moving away from a system of economic and personal freedom that endows every person, no matter the color of his skin, ethnic background or religion, with the opportunity to achieve a standard of living that is incomprehensible to much of the world even today.

The first colonists to arrive in America had a communal economy — basically, socialism. In the first year, half of them starved to death. The next year, they switched to a free-market system with each person free to achieve whatever his abilities and ambitions permitted, and they prospered.

The lesson is clear: We Americans have been given a great gift. Let's not squander it, but thank God for it and work to preserve the liberty that has allowed us to live in unrivaled luxury, even for the poorest among us.

© Dennis Campbell

 

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