‘The future cannot send us food parcels, any more than it can “lend” us a vaccine that has not yet been invented.’ So wrote Henry Ergas and Jonathon Pincus in The Australian newspaper today. Their point was that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the ‘supply side’ of the economy. In other words, with so many business closing (either temporarily or permanently) or working under capacity, there are not as many goods and services available for purchase as there used to be. They are right. Furthermore, the impact of COVID-19 on businesses has not been direct. Rather, it is government policy that has constrained the freedom of businesses to produce goods and services that satisfy needs in the community.

As Mr Ergas and Professor Pincus point out, it is wrong to think that we are borrowing from the future. Instead, as they argue eloquently, we are taking from the future. The argument is fairly simple really:

• Business output is down owing to government policy;

• Government spending on programs such as Job Keeper and Job Seeker keeps demand up for consumer items (supermarkets have done very well during the pandemic);

• Because consumer demand is subsidised, but too few goods/services are available in total (via local production or imports), investment falls (the mathematics just work out that way); and

• Less investment now means less output in the future.

Although there is merit in subsidising demand in the short term - there are costs associated with unemployment such as mental illness and loss of human capital - the long term consequence is that future generations will be poorer.

Is there another way? Yes! God had a different solution in the context of famine. Recall the story of Joseph in Gen 37-50. He interpreted Pharaoh’s dream about fat and gaunt cows and full and empty heads of grain. Jospeh understood from God that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. God’s solution was to take 20% of the produce of the land in the years of plenty and store it for the years of famine. There was no taking from the future in that scenario.

In our modern, Babylonian economic system, we don’t do storehouses. We are hooked on ‘just in time’ to save on costs in the here and now. The evidence is all around us as empty shelves in supermarkets, hardware and other stores demonstrate. In many cases we relied on ‘just in time’ from China. China didn’t come through because it had its own production crisis (also brought on by policy). At one stage, I couldn’t but filters for our water containers. They are made in China. None of us could buy face masks. They are made in China. And anyone who has been to Kmart lately will notice how low of stocks they are. Much of what they sell is made in China.

It might seem to be utterly impractical to keep large inventories of goods and it’s unfashionable to think that it might be possible. Bablyonian economics is strongly oriented to the present and pays scant attention to the future. Yet, God’s way protects future generations.

One might well ask how godly it is to shore up the demand side of the economy when the basic problem is supply - there is not enough being produced, largely as a result of government policy.