To really understand the debt crisis, one has to understand the background of the crisis. There are several principles at work here. The most basic is the corruption of democracy. According to Plato (and many other contemporary philosophers) the backside of the shining coin of democracy is corruption. There are several methods to stop the corruption, the most important is off cause enlightenment, that is the enforced transparency of the society.

But there are other institutions to hinder the corruption of society; the law, the faith, the family.

Now fast forward to economics, what we have in the current system is an unbalanced system. On one hand we have free market theories based upon Adams Smiths “The wealth of nations”, basically it states, that the freedom of trade will be a boon to all nations implied.

On the other hand we have Keynes, who believe that the investment in the state and state sponsored project will boost the economy, so that it will create jobs and so on.

Combining the insight of Plato with the current state of economic theory, what would the insightful reader notice? He would probably notice, that the one side is talking about freedom, the other side is talking about economical motivation. What is missing?

Well, there is a balance between freedom and responsibility in all systems. On one hand we are free to do what we want, we have freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of action. On the other hand we have responsibility to our neighbors, to law, to the family and to the country.

Harking back to Adam Smith, he, being a very wise philosopher, off cause planned a system that did encompass both freedom and responsibility. The true masterwork of his writing is, according to himself, not “The wealth of nations”, but another book called “The moral sentiment”. According to this book, we all have, inside ourself a feeling of ethics. A guide inside ourself, that will guide us to goodness and loyalty.

Being a devout protestant, one might call this a protestant stance on life.

Now, to rebalance the economical field, we have to, as I see it, to read “The moral sentiment”. Not that we do not need the other book, but because there is a serious unbalance in the system as it is now. We need to strengthen the moral fiber of business.

This however leads us to the current business life. Being a Dane, I have little knowledge of the internal mechanics of American business, but I suppose it more or less the same as Denmark, just on a different scale off cause.

I have had the honour to know some of the Danish business life through my theoretical work in the field. Among other I know the Danish shipping firm Mærsk. These companies are highly professional and live in the darwinian world of business. Now, to my experience there are, basically, two types of business. One is the family owned, old school, bible thumping, patriotic, conservative kind. In these kinds of businesses often the virtues of the king hold supreme, there is a deep loyalty between the business and the country.

On the other hand there is the younger more savvy business. These are pretty much into having fun, make some money, and also support the local community to some degree.

Both have an on and off relationship to the banking system. They need the banking system to help them invest and raise money to either fend off bad times or create new items of commerce.

Now, there are ways to work with both types of business. One is to hinder their action possibilities, the other is to motivate them. Here in Denmark, we are not really good to our businesses, especially the liberal part of our political life, they are all for regulations and laws, to force the business into this or that.

Now, we need the business to work our way; to create jobs and support the nation. The good news is, that they are often motivated to do this from the outset. The bad news is, some are not, and some are increasingly tired of being misunderstood or abused (read Ayn Rand).

So we need a tool to give them something to motivate them and not force them. My idea was to create a motivational system as Napoleon Bonaparte did, but the current solution; to give tax relieves is a much better idea.

Now, it will give us a good tool to motivate, but we should not forget the deeper problem of the nation; the moral crisis. This will only be mended if we really forget about our own selfish priorities, and work to support the community. This is where the church or the faith in general comes in. (Not really Islam, but most other). The basic project of Abraham, was to hinder the corruption of democracy (he was a citizen of Babylon, one of the original cities that developed polis theory). Abraham had another idea than Adam Smith, he believed that egoism will be hindered by the grace of spirit; to enhance the personal existence, with the existence of other beings, by the way of the heart. By giving and by loving the person beside you, and the next and the next; the family, the local community, the city, the nation and the world.

G-d bless peace and love