DOGE and the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?
recall that the Sunday Silver Sermon does not favor any one religion over any other religion.
This is just a once per week break from all the facts, figures, charts and market noise.
This week is a Saturday Silver Sermon in lieu of Sunday
Many of you know I attended the University of New Mexico. I played one year of NCAA tennis for the Lobos but wasn't good enough to stay on the NM Lobo tennis team the following year because a new crop of Freshmen were younger, quicker, and better than me.
Before that, I was considered a superb High School Tennis standout playing for the Farmington Scorpions. Where I live right now in Pittsburgh, my son is in the band, and he can travel 20 minutes by school bus to compete against another large school (2 miles away )
In New Mexico (sparsely populated), you have to travel up to 6 hours to find the next city to field a tennis team.
In our athletic district were schools like Albuquerque High, West Mesa High, Los Alamos, Espanola, Santa Fe, Grants, and Gallup, New Mexico.
Going through that list of cities above is like traveling through a Sociology 101 class. Gallup is 95% Navajo, Grants 90% Navajo (home of some the largest Uranium mines ever in USA) Albuquerque High and West Mesa both considered very “rough” inner city schools plagued with social problems.
But today we are going to discuss the night and day differences between Los Alamos New Mexico (home of the Atom bomb) and Española New Mexico (just a few minutes away from Los Alamos)
Los Alamos New Mexico
Los Alamos, New Mexico, is a unique and exceptional community. Boasting the highest concentration of PhDs per capita in the United States, this affluent town is renowned for its outstanding educational system. With a median household income of $98,458 and excellent schools consistently ranked among the best in the state, Los Alamos offers residents a high quality of life and exceptional social amenities
Española New Mexico
Española, New Mexico, faces significant socioeconomic challenges. With a high poverty rate of 18.59%, the city struggles with child poverty, teenage pregnancy, and elevated suicide rates. The local economy largely depends on service jobs supporting Los Alamos National Laboratory. Española grapples with a heroin addiction epidemic, contributing to one of the highest drug overdose death rates nationally
We would play both teams the same weekend, and let's just say beyond the thrills of an eventful, action-packed weekend of singles, doubles, double faults, overhead smashes, passing shots, drop shots, lobs, and aces, it was a weekend of sociological wonderment.
The desert southwest is already packed with splendor, intrigue, and enchantment, but this journey from the ski town of Los Alamos down to the high desert valley of Española is forever etched into my brain and memory bank.
Elon Musk , DOGE and the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
“Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”
Between 2004 and 2025 Elon Musk (primarily through Space X and Tesla) received $35.9 billion from the US government through government contracts, tax incentives, and subsidies. And now he is in charge of who gets to keep government funding and who does not.
Matthew 18:21-35
From New International Version
The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[a]
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
In the parable of the unmerciful servant from Matthew 18, Jesus tells of a man forgiven a massive debt who then refuses to show mercy to someone owing him far less. This ancient story finds some modern parallels in Elon Musk's recent actions as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration.
Musk's companies, Tesla and SpaceX, have long been beneficiaries of government largesse, receiving approximately $30 billion in public funds over 15 years. SpaceX alone has been awarded $20.7 billion in government contracts since 2008, with federal contracts doubling to $3.7 billion in fiscal year 2024. This support has been crucial to the growth and success of Musk's ventures.
Yet, in a striking turn of events, Musk now wields a metaphorical wrecking ball at DOGE
Let’s get back to New Mexico again
The layoffs have already begun in New Mexico and across USA.
Approximately 2,200 federal employees are in their probationary period in New Mexico could have far-reaching economic consequences for the state, particularly in areas heavily dependent on federal employment.
This job loss would create a significant ripple effect throughout the local economy, leading to reduced consumer spending, strained local businesses, decreased tax revenue, and thousands more job losses in other sectors. All in a New Mexico the 2nd poorest state in the USA.
To illustrate how money circulates in a local economy, we can examine a simplified model of the multiplier effect. Imagine a federal employee spends $1 at a local restaurant. The restaurant then uses $0.70 of that dollar to pay local suppliers and employees. Those recipients, in turn, spend $0.50 locally, and the next round of recipients spends $0.35 in the community. In a final round, the last group spends $0.25 in the local economy. Through this process, the initial $1 generates $2.80 in total economic activity. While this model is simplified, it demonstrates how the loss of federal jobs can have a compounding negative impact on the local economy.
The situation in Española, which serves as a crucial service center for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), provides a glimpse into real world consequences.
Despite being one of the poorest communities in the USA, Española's economy is closely tied to LANL's operations. In fiscal year 2022, LANL contributed $3.77 billion to New Mexico's economy and directly supported 14,433 jobs, which led to over 21,000 jobs statewide when including indirect effects.
Many Española businesses rely heavily on LANL employees as customers, and some laboratory workers choose to live in Española due to lower housing costs.
The potential loss of federal jobs will exaggerate existing economic challenges in Española. Local businesses would likely see a reduced customer base, property values which are already stressed will fall even further. Then there will be an increased strain on social services due to rising unemployment. This situation will further widen the economic disparity between Española and Los Alamos, highlighting the vulnerability of communities heavily dependent on federal employment.
The precarious economic situation in Española and similar communities underscores the need for economic diversification in regions like Northern New Mexico.
Before the DOGE Wrecking ball it wouldn’t have taken much research to figure out a more nuanced way to start slashing things. For example, let’s take the recent war in Afghanistan that wasted $2.3 trillion dollars (according to Brown University’s “Cost of War” Project) This $2.3 trillion dollar price was 5x the price of the Vietnam war (replacing the Taliban with the Taliban)
Prior to Slashing it would make sense to figure out the consequences and plan for the devastation. These type of things:
Efforts to attract new industries
support local entrepreneurship
vocational training
putting people to work fixing US schools
putting people to work fixing US polluted waterways
We need to hear from leaders like Trump and Musk that could help build resilience against potential federal job losses
Thus create a more stable economic foundation.
By fostering a more resilient economic landscape, these communities could better weather the storms of federal budget cuts or policy changes, ensuring a more prosperous future for their residents.
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