In a modern society, infra-structure is very important: Transport, Communication, Electricity, Water Supply. LORD did not give us an example in the Bible, as these are modern evolutions after the Industrial Revolution. Britain undertook most of these services by Government, and privatized them only recently.
In Hong Kong, water is provided by Government. But electricity was a private enterprise from the very beginning, and Kadorie was one of its owners and was in the Board of Directors. Kadorie believed in 'trade righteously', and he supplied electricity to remote villages, even a very small village on the top of a mountain. These are undertakings at a loss, because he could never recoup the cost of laying cables, installing transformers. He did it because of his benevolent nature. Though, on the whole, the company never sustained a loss.
When the tabernacle of the LORD was built, people donated material and volunteered for labour. Perhaps we may use it in some infra-structure project.
Water, electricity, communication, public transport, etc. are the infrastructures of a society. A society cannot function without these. And all the citizens depend on them.
In times past, government undertook these obligations, and government departments with civil-servants run them. Deficiencies showed up after many years, e.g. Lack of incentives of employees, lack of innovations because of no compeititions, and high cost from salaries.
A swing in the opposite direction is undertaken by many governments: i.e. privatization. e.g. Britain privatized water, and the water charges shot up, with improved services like customer responsiveness and better water quality, but companies earned record profits. But is privatization a solution to these important issues affecting the life and death of a nation and its millions of citizens?
An example is worth quoting here. In Hong Kong, electricity was initially provided by private enterprise, and the Kadoriee family hold lot of shares in that company (China Light and Power Company). Kadorie was a very kind-hearted businessmen. One of his motto was "trade righteoulsy, do business in a righteous way". He supplied electricity to all villages, some extremely remote (e.g. some 10 - 20 families living on the top of a high mountain), out of the company's expenses. The cost of doing so can hardly be recovered from the monthly electric fees. (He even supplied materials for building water-works for the villagers, free. He also established a "Kadorie farm" with researchers in argriculture and farming techniques, and helped villagers improve their livelihood, out of his own money.)
Privatization will work if the owners of the company are social-minded as Kadorie. But who can guarantee this? and who can guarantee that their children who inherited the business will follow their footsteps? Hence privatization will not work indefinitely. It will not last to eternity.
Under LORD's system, limited liability is NOT allowed. Every one who borrow MUST repay. Every one must be responsible for his own money matters. If he is unable to repay, he is to be sold as contract workers (for 7 years, in fact 6 years), so that he may learn prudence from the master who bought him.
IOU as money, company's shares/stocks as money will not be practiced in LORD's system, and silver will be real money.
Moreover, the bad practice of bankers in "loan creats deposit" will not be allowed, which is possible because the present day banking system is a "credit system - a better name of IOU system" and accounting is mixed up. Under LORD's sytem, where silver is money, bankers must concentrate on lending only, and registries of silver ownership are independent of banks.
But who runs the registries, government operated or privatization???
One must bear in mind that all these public utilities operate like monopolies and everyone relies and hence pays for their services. A slight over-charge will create immense wealth for the operators, which will never be good for the stability of the society in the long run.
Are there solutions that will last for ever???
(THINK: The chief servants and those associated with him live beside the priests/Levi portions, hence they themselves must be extremely good civil-engineers, etc, otherwise their recommendations for civil works, for infra-structures would be useless to the various tribes. Also notice LORD's town planning (Eze. 45)
Now as everyone must volunteer his first-born son for judges/moral-education, it is natural that they themselves should volunteer themselves for public services, say 1 month in a year. Hence public utilities may be run by them under the supervision of the chief servant. In this way, lack of innovation and improvement because of no competition and high cost would not arise, and accumulation of wealth to favored families would also not arise. This way of handling public utilities may last forever. I value your opinion, please email me at "sywu@pacific.net.hk")