It is a fact that we have to eat and drink, wear clothes and live some place, and all of these things cost money, which someone has to provide. The person who provides it has to have earned it himself or got it from someone who has. If none of them earned it then, it must have been saved from previous earnings. There is only one other way for money to be available to pay for these necessities, and that is for it to be stolen. All the ways that money becomes available to pay for our needs are the result of work, except the last. All are productive, except the last. The last is unproductive.
Every citizen should be productive. If every citizen were productive, it would increase our Gross National Product and there would be more savings. That would make more funds available for entrepreneurs to borrow. That would create more jobs which would further increase productivity and soon, we would become an industrious, This is the vision that three great religious leaders of different eras had when they proposed the doctrine of work as an imperative.
Saint Paul
I quote the 2 Thessalonians 3, 8:10
8. “Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought but with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you.”
9. “Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example to you to follow us.”
10. “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”
There is no need for me to try to enlarge or elucidate these passages. The message is perfectly clear.
Mohandas Gandhi
When Gandhi had completed his last fast, weak and almost to the point of death, he called for his spinning wheel. Nehru and his other associates remonstrated strongly with him, saying that he would kill himself but, Gandhi insisted saying, “Bread taken without work is stolen bread. I have begun to take food, therefore, I must labor.”
Gandhi’s philosophy is the same as St. Paul’s. Many years after it was adopted by people of a religious faith and came to be known as the Protestant ethic. The thought is the same. It applies equally to individuals, communities and nations.
Elijah Muhammad
The founder of the Nation of Islam has done more for the upliftment and empowerment of underprivileged African/Americans than any other organization in America. Islam is a religious faith but, at the heart of his teaching is a very simple philosophy, “A man who does not produce has no right to consume.”
The Nation of Islam, also referred to as Black Muslims, are a strong, proud and prosperous people because, they have been faithful to their philosophy of living. Idleness and laziness are not tolerated. Everyone has to be productive.
So. If we wish to become a nation (we are not one yet), we have to become converts to the philosophy of St. Paul, Gandhi and Elijah Muhammad, which is the same. We cannot tolerate idleness and laziness and, we certainly can’t continue to tolerate crime. Idleness and laziness are non-productive but, crime is non-productive and also destructive. Plus, it is a disincentive to entrepreneurship.
First World countries can afford to have many lazy people and idlers. Developing countries cannot. Laziness is a habit formed in your youth and, is the fault of those whose duty it was to deal with you very firmly to prevent you from forming it. If they didn’t, they will have to answer for their omission on the Day of Reckoning.
There is very little you can do about individuals who will not work except, to put them in a program like, “Conscription for Rehabilitation.”
People are usually idle because they have no occupation or, because no one will employ them. So. It is the duty of parents and guardians to see that those in their charge learn to do something by which they can earn a living by the age of sixteen years.
You could say that a lot of our social ills are due to the neglect of those responsible for raising children to do their duty and, they are responsible to a large extent for our present state of affairs.
In Government’s program to Restore Belize, I should like to recommend that it be declared as a national policy, that we will no longer tolerate idleness and laziness after, it is decided on the positive steps which will be taken in pursuit of that policy.