What Free Will Cost You

FREE! The ultimate attention grabber. After hundreds of years of sales research and experience, we have freebie marketing, freemiums, and free samples. Buy one, get one free. Free personal consultations. Free meal cards. Even free refills. But wait! There’s more! If you keep reading now, I’ll throw in even more unsolicited opinions absolutely free of charge!

All of this only proves what we already know: WE LOVE FREE STUFF!

Our infatuation with gratuities has reached an all-time high. Our pursuit of freebies guides our decision making in ways we hardly even notice. Someone flashes the promise of free-this or free-that, and we easily abandon rational thought and logic. Even freebies detrimental to our own health and wellbeing don’t deter us! Don’t believe me? Here’s some food for thought. Fresh of the run of a national bout of tainted meals and food poisoning, Chipotle Mexican Grill started a new campaign to win customers back. Their strategy was simple. “Text us the word ‘raincheck’ to 888-222 and get a free burrito.”

This food literally caused severe illness only a few weeks before, ruining the company’s image and disenfranchising their clientele.

“How stupid do they think we are?!” I jested with a contemptuous snort.

Shortly thereafter, I hit the send key on my phone and here I am still waiting for my free burrito voucher to be texted right back to me. Touché Chipotle… Touché.

We obsess over free stuff. Now that obsession is starting to make waves in the public arena. So many people cry for free-tuition, interest free loans, free health care, free birth control, free internet, free cell phones... we seem to conjure up new entitlements and demands on a near-daily basis. Politicians are now the new masters of the freebie marketing strategy, and they execute that strategy with unmatched vigor. Much like the merchant vendor, the politician will promise some, then promise more, and finally promise it all. And as I made mention above, we all love the promise of free stuff, even if the promises fly in the face of logic and reality.

This might sound crazy, but I still hold to the radical belief that words happen to mean something. My fervent fascination with definitions often prompts marital eye rolls and incites terrible date banter. Putting that aside, I highly recommend  picking up a dictionary once in a while and really processing what certain words mean. Knowing actual definitions might be uncomfortable for some, but having control over one’s language goes a long way towards being intellectually honest and sociable. But I digress…

Now honestly consider what “free” means. To be more specific, consider the adverbial interpretation of the word. Whether you imagine a free burrito or a free education, “free” implies that the burrito or education comes without cost or payment. That’s right! Zilch! Zip! Nada! Nothing! No wonder we get so excited. Getting free stuff is like fine wizardry. We witness something of substance appear from the nether dimension where fees, fares, and bills simply do not exist. To top that all off, even watching the magic show is free! Burrito and a show? What’s not to love?

But alas, the magic disappears behind the starry curtain and flashy smoke. Reality rears its ugly scary head. The wonder and awe have given way to disappointment and perspective. All at once, you begin to feel the sharp truths established by years of proven economic theory and statistical data: Nothing is truly free…

“Wait a minute!” You protest, “You mean to tell me that magic doesn’t exist!”

Yes. Yes I do.

All things come at a cost. What is free for one always comes at the expense of another. Someone has to pay the price. Someone has to pay for the tortilla, the meat, the cheese, and the rice. Someone needs to cover the wages for teachers, the costs for textbooks, and the fees for building maintenance. Now look beyond the monetary realm and you begin to recognize the cost of other resources. Each of these costs time. They cost talent. They cost effort. Add upon that even more monetary costs to compensate laborers for the time, talent, and effort that they put into it. In economic reality, all goods and services are only provided from the expenditures and forfeitures of someone else’s resources. Once this is understood, then the argument can begin to change.

“Okay sure, someone has to pay for it. Those nasty rich affluent types can shoulder the burden of extreme taxation and wealth confiscation. However, the entitlements and benefits are entirely free to those who consume them!”

If only that were true.

Remember that cost are not solely limited dollars and cents. Consider the resources you give up to obtain the freebie. Consider the resources I put into obtaining my free burrito. My time and emotion were spent reading the news and media. My phone data and battery were spent replying to the promotion. My energy and effort was spent reassuring myself that E. coli wasn’t in my future. I had to spend some of my resources in order to get the freebie. Granted, my use of resources was miniscule by comparison. However, you cannot argue that I made no expenditure of resources. You cannot argue that the burrito was truly free.

I joke about the burrito, but the principles apply with all “freebies”. On the burrito scale, what you give up may not amount to much of anything. But what about the larger “freebies”? The social experiment “freebies”? Look beyond the monetary and fiscal economic impacts of entitlements. What resources will you have to sacrifice? What freedoms will you have to renounce?

Of all the resources we have, I fear that freedom is the one resource we are most eager to offer in exchange for the freebie. This is not because we despise personal freedoms. Rather, it is because our emotional and ideological aspirations get the best of us when the prospect of “free” dangles in front of our face. The misuse and misinterpretation of the concept of “free” unintentionally creates an atmosphere wherein the freedoms of the makers, AND the takers, will be trampled.

Consider the freedom of choice that so many of us consider sacrosanct. What impact would exorbitant entitlements have on your choice of school? Your choice of healthcare? Even your choice of lifestyle? In a world where freebies maintain the masses, what you are given is ultimately what you will get.

Imagine an average trip to the local Costco. Along the aisles you pass one booth after another, each offering a small morsel or sample from a promoted product. A belligerent consumer pulls from the freezer a selection of premium snacks, removes a handful of appetizers, and demands that the booth chef grill up the batch of food. How does the employee respond? She calls security to come drag the loon out of the store! Why? Because you don’t get to choose which free food gets cooked, and you certainly don’t get to choose copious amounts of free premium food to sample. In short, your choices are at the complete mercy of Costco.

In the world of freebies, what you see is what you get. You don’t get to negotiate quality or quantity. You will take what the giver offers or you are out of luck. Think about the implications of this concept if applied to education or healthcare. The proposed giver, in these cases the government, dictates the standard and limits the choice. You get what they offer, nothing more.

“What’s so bad about that? So long as everyone gets taken care of, why should it matter if there are no choices?”

This may seem like sound reasoning, as long as your wading ankle deep in the shallow pool of thinking. Though it may be uncomfortable, lets wade a little deeper into the waters of logic. Think about what this question implies and maybe ask some further questions:

Do you really like the idea of one-size-fits all education or health care?

How are the finite resources distributed?

What criteria is used to find the most deserving students or patients?

Who gets turned away when resources are depleted?

Who decides what is fair?

Who is the giver?

Are you comfortable being at the giver's mercy?

“No hold on a minute! This is nonsense! Of course you can still make choices for yourself!”

Certainly! You can choose premium care, premium food, and premium services… for a price. But if you are going to use that argument, you simply end up right back where the original problem started. The Have’s have and the Have-Not’s do not have. The only next intellectually honest step is to condemn everyone to a whole new class of Barely-Have’s. Image all the choices and options we will have then!

In addition to the freedom to choose, a freebie society would all but eliminate your freedom to earn. Contrary to the misguided beliefs of many, earning is not evil. Earning is not selfish. Earning is simply the process by which hard work, talent, and intelligence create benefit for the individual. If you can accept this as truth, then you must also accept that some will simply earn more in their lifetime. Some people work harder. Some people are more talented. Some people are more intelligent. Different levels of contribution ensure that there will always be different levels of earning. No handout or entitlement will change that.

The free-stuff model, as interpreted by the world, requires that a man do little, or even nothing. It is argued that by virtue of his mere existence does man deserve equal footing in regards to wealth and prosperity. Effort and merit be damned. Earnings should be confiscated and then redistributed in order to satisfy justice and improve living. However, depriving a man of his earnings also deprives him of his will, his drive, and his purpose. Just another unintended and unsettling consequence of a freebie society.

For some reason, we seem eager to vilify the earners and makers of society. There is a genuine resentment for all things affluent and wealthy. No consideration is made as to how the wealth was accrued. No thought goes into the blood, the sweat, and the effort exerted to obtain that level of living. Further ignorance overlooks the earner’s impact on employment, charity, donation, progress, and investment. Taker’s do not provide jobs. Takers do no donate funds to construct hospitals or schools. Taker’s do not risk personal wealth to invest in progress. These roles are filled by the makers. They are filled by the earners.

A man ought be recognized for his achievement and contribution. He ought to freely earn respect, accolades, and dare I say it… money. If something is honestly earned through legitimate merit, who are we to put a cap or limit on their achievement? Let the industrious earn wealth, praise, and distinction. Conversely, man ought to be recognized for his lack of achievement and contribution. Let the lazy and the greedy earn disdain, scorn, and criticism. Let mankind be free to exercise their freedom do earn. When given the chance, I feel that more good will be earned than bad.

Howard W. Hunter understood this concept of the freedom-sucking freebie. In a time when the ideologies of communism and capitalism clashed, he offered the following words in a address titled "The Law of the Harvest":

"The government will take from the 'haves' and give to the 'have nots.' Both have lost their freedom. Those who 'have', lost their freedom to give voluntarily of their own free will and in the way they desire. Those who 'have not', lost their freedom because they did not earn what they received. They got 'something for nothing', and they will neither appreciate the gift nor the giver of the gift."

I know there are problems in the world. I know that there are good people suffering in poor conditions. I know there are also bad people prospering in unjust conditions. I won’t pretend that such isn’t the case. However, fixing the problems with freebies is simply not the answer. Often the cost of free stuff is too high.

Struggling people don’t need another hand-out. More than anything, they need a hand-up. Who better to offer that hand-up than those who are on a higher economic plane? If you find yourself mired in economic struggle, don’t fight to tear down those who are in the best position to lift you up. If you find yourself in prosperous circumstances, don’t hesitate to contribute a free hand to help those around you.

Everyone loves free stuff, or at least the concept of free stuff. But not everyone understands the hidden costs of freebies. Keep that in mind the next time a politician campaigns on free-this and free-that. I could go on with a flurry of postulations and opinions, but I have a free burrito waiting for me downtown.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Much of my writing follows the theme of family. Indeed my whole purpose for creating this blog was to provide my children with a firsthand account of their dad’s thoughts and memories. As I have hinted in the past, nothing means more to me than my family. My testimony of family importance relies heavily on the formative examples and experiences from my youth. That testimony continues to grow through adulthood alongside my wife and kids. I believe that family serves an eternal and spiritual purpose. This belief is founded on a special document. For those who wish to know more about my views on family life and purpose, I invite you to read “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”. I find its message notably applicable to our era.

The eternal function and purpose of family is eternal. However, there are some misguided constituencies that work hard to transform or entirely terminate the divinely ordained institution. These crusades follow the banners of “EQUALITY”, “DIVERSITY”, and “TOLERANCE”. However, such crusades frequently and radically miss their intended mark. The world eagerly pursues moral equivalence. Instead, it unintentionally achieves moral ambivalence. Tragically, such movements always produce more victims than victors.

It is easy to concentrate on the foretold calamities and devastations that emerge from the family dissolution. It is even easier to grumble about societal shortcomings. However, if our response to societal adversity is limited to puffing and pouting, then we giving up integrity and courage in favor of lazy finger-pointing.

If you pay close attention to the Proclamation, you will notice that only meager portion gives explicit attention to the calamitous consequences of failure in the home. In contrast, the remaining text focuses on our sacred duties and responsibilities within our own sphere of influence. This is what makes this sacred document so incredible. Although the Proclamation boldly addresses a grandiose world audience, it also earnestly calls out to individuals and families with no worldly significance. It is a proclamation to both the great and spacious, and the small and simple. The Lord intended it as such because His great works are brought to pass through small and simple things. The power to preserve your family does not reside in legislative chambers nor judicial halls. Rather, it is found in small and simple teachings, traditions, and truths.

This does not mean that we withdraw from public forum and debate. I do not advocate shrinking in the face of criticism. However, I am suggesting that we prioritize our efforts to defend and maintain the Lord’s model for families.

There is no need to overburden ourselves with society’s emerging and evolving definitions. In truth, the definitions of man simply do not matter. Every attempt to refashion, redefine, or remodel the familial unit amounts to nothing more than a feeble kick against the pricks. Kick as they might, these facts still hold true:

Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God

Family is central to the Creator’s plan

Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose

Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness

The sanctity of life is important in God’s eternal plan

These simple, yet profound truths will not bend nor adapt to the contortions and machinations of faulty mortal philosophy. Therefore, we can feel at peace even in the face of a taunting, shouting, and contentious society. We should note that the influences outside of the family are far less potent than the influences within the family.

Do you remember the last time you roamed past a rickety house? Conjure in your mind an image of a home with scattered shingles, rotted trim, and weathered windows. Think for a moment what forces might have caused damage to the house. You might imagine extreme weather such as heavy rain, scorching heat, or severe wind. Or you might simply blame the passage of time and the inevitable effects of age. While these external forces certainly contribute to a building’s defects, they ultimately do not condemn a structure to decay and destruction. History proves that the problem originates from within.

The forces of time, nature, and gravity cannot be avoided. Their influence exerts itself without prejudice and without discrimination. Yet despite their constant presence, many buildings endure the pressure for decades, centuries, and even millennia. In contrast, many buildings only last a few years, days, or even mere months. Why such a stark difference? Each one endures the same rain, the same wind, and the same sun. The root problem is something far more internal. The answer? Poor design, poor materials, and poor craftsmanship.

The best designers and builders understand this principle better than anyone. Rather than curse the forces far beyond their control, they dedicate their time, talents, and resources to constructing something of extreme quality. Such professionals habitually emphasize stability, reliability, and responsibility. They know that if such standards can be met, then no external force will have sufficient power to undermine the building’s integrity.

In a similar fashion, our sights should not be solely set upon external pressures. We know they are there and we know that they will always be there. But we simply cannot avoid the forces of animosity and adversity. Nevertheless, we can concentrate on building and maintaining our quality family unit. If that unit is built to the Lord’s celestial standards, then our families will stand the test of time and all eternity.

If our Heavenly Father is the great architect of the family, then The Family: A Proclamation to the World is His blueprint. His plan specifies that we observe the standards and principles requisite for celestial families. Chief among these principles are knowledge, duty, and charity. I invite you to explore with me how these three principles help us fulfill our sacred familial duties.

1) Knowledge

Knowledge of who we are, why we are here, and where we will go lays the solid foundation for family structure. The opening declarations of the Proclamation to the World allude to this fact:

ALL HUMAN BEINGS—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny…

IN THE PREMORTAL REALM, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life…

Our testimony of our divine heritage and potential affirms that we are already part of a celestial family, with a Father who loves and presides over all of us. He is aware of our concerns, our aspirations, and our weaknesses. Our knowledge of our Heavenly Father and His plan of salvation explains the institution of the earthly family and legitimizes its sacred role. Such foundational testimony provides the necessary bedrock upon which a solid family structure can thrive.

Our knowledge and testimony of these truths should be maintained and supplemented through study and prayer. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on the doctrines found within scripture. From scripture we obtain the teachings of Jesus Christ – namely faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome living. These teachings cannot be consistently practiced unless they are consistently reviewed at home.

2) Duty

Another recurring theme within the proclamation is duty.  Words or phrases related to duty, commandment, obligation, responsibility, and covenant stand out in the text an impressive seventeen times. Clearly the Lord is attempting to communicate with us the importance of duty. Such examples include:

…Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children.

…Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness…and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens…

This sense of familial duty binds us to our families in a way that no legal document or legislation can. Take some time to think of the special duties you have in your family. What are your duties as a son? A daughter? Father? Mother? Husband? Wife? Sibling? How strong is that sense of duty? Now imagine what this life might be like if familial duty and responsibility were given adequate reverence. What societal ailments might be cured? Addiction? Poverty? Abuse? Neglect? Hate? Such is the power of duty.

The proclamation pointedly reminds parents that their obedience and responsibility is paramount to a healthy family. Whether you are parenting toddlers, teens, or grown-ups, the principle of duty will always apply.

3) Charity

If knowledge discloses who we are and duty dictates what we must do, then charity determines how we must act. The proclamation challenges us to:

…Love and care for each other and for [our] children.

…Rear [our] children in love and righteousness…

…Teach them to love and serve one another…

…Help one another as equal partners…

This is plain language that leaves no room for variation or rationalization. There is no adequate substitute for love and respect within the home. When present, love diffuses both public and private hostilities. John Hugh McNaughton emphasized this when he wrote:

In the Cottage there is joy

When there’s love at home;

Hate and envy ne’er annoy

When there’s love at home.

Roses bloom beneath our feet;

All the earth’s a garden sweet,

Making life a bliss complete

When there’s love at home.

This type of love and charity should also extend beyond the confines of the home. Children should see a parent’s example of respect and kindness towards others. This means following the Savior’s example to “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” When children see this type of charity exercised on a consistent basis, peace will begin to exist at home and in the community

            It is my belief that harmony in the home is the essential ingredient to a happy and healthy society. My experiences, both from within my own family and from the examples of others, demonstrate that knowledge, duty, and charity create the peaceful and predictable atmosphere wherein children can reach their true potential. Rather than work yourself into a frenzy of fear and hysteria, I urge you to focus your efforts on maintaining a family frame that will endure any persecution.