4 Pillars of Economic and National Growth

As we witness the turbulence of the world, we begin to realize that a nation's first decline is not one where a volcano belches fire over the capital or where an invading army tramples over the border, but where whatever used to prop up the nation has suddenly been removed causing a nation to decline and fall like a three-day-old balloon; yes, I refer to the powers and mechanics of a nation's economic engine.  While, obviously, an economy is driven by many factors, here are 4 mighty pillars that if tampered with or removed will irrevocably remove a nation's foundation and force it down the abyss:

Firstly:

The morality of a people is essential to a nation's success, for, when a people start to act perversely they will degenerate into baser forms of life and will take their nation back with them. Typically, a people's morality is defined by a harsh environment which demands a strict moral code and punishes the malefactor with frostbite, sunstroke, and starvation. As you can imagine, natural selection allows only those to live who can keep the natural law. As a nation progresses however, this strict physical law becomes insufficient to keep a people moral for the same reason a full granary makes laziness easier than an empty one; when the food supply is depleted however, nature will have her revenge. It is possible to be immoral while the physical law is held off, but in this there is nor progress or growth; only the consumption of the earlier fruits of morality. "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." Proverbs 25:28

Secondly:

Justice is a keystone element one step beyond the physical law, dealing not only among separate individuals, but communities. Where the first law of morality, or the physical law, may prosper one who steals the bread of another, the laws of justice will will punish him, for thieves are not tolerated in just society. Justice demands that everyone render's to their neighbor his just due. When this keystone element is respected, then one man becomes many, and the hunter-gatherer may enter into the farming stage because people are able to cooperate with each other. Nature cannot execute justice, and therefore man tries to do it himself with various degrees of success. When man serves justice well, then a nation prospers. When man abuses justice, then justice devolves from the courtroom to the street, to the knife, and finally to the original first keystone. "Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place." Jeremiah 22:3

Thirdly:

Fellowship is the blessing of justice: when man strives to be just among his superiors, peers, and inferiors, they are no longer on different planes than himself, but all become his equals and his friends; class warfare is essentially the rotten fruit of poor justice. When a people become truly united, the economic results are phenomenal. When a man treats another not only with justice, but friendship, then a people grow strong and wealthy as they unite together. This fellowship is not unlike a professional sports team who win championships when they are united and melded together but lose home games when all the players feel alone and isolated. When everyone in a society realizes that they are trying to win the same game and are on the same team, the economy and nation prosper.  "Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbor." Proverbs 19:4

Fourthly: 

Perhaps one of the most concrete features of a strong nation and economy is a georgic work ethic, without which there would never exist prosperous ports and markets in a nation to amply supply it with a happy surplus of goods and services. Without a hefty work ethic, one may scrape by on a subsistence level, but never will a nation ever achieve the heights of industry and commerce without a hearty people exercising a vigorous, georgic work ethic. The word "Georgic" is used in a title that Virgil pend wherein Virgil praises the art and craft of the farmer along with his work ethic. A farmer instilled with the work ethic Virgil speaks of, does not lay idle away his time while his fields lie fallow but takes the plow to them. A nation who is industrious and works hard when combined with the earlier factor absolutely will progress in power and economic might. "Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase." Proverbs 13:11

A nation, grand or modest, is the sum of it's supporting pillars: If these pillars are built of the finest marble by the finest artist-architects, then a nation is splendid to behold, whereas, if these pillars are made shoddy particle board and left to crumble into disrepair, then the souls that live upon them will plummet with them. Truly, nations and economies are the results of people maintaining these pillars  well.