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10.02.08

Change I Can Believe In

It seems to me quite ironic that in a year when the polls tell us most Americans want change, a whole lot of change is coming upon us and most of us seem to be either insanely scared and / or utterly confounded. Meanwhile the chasm between theoretical, political change and practical, economic change grows wider with each day. People are angry and they want solutions! The lousy politicians should be working to ensure a better future for us and to fix the mess they created! We also would prefer that they do so at no cost to us, the taxpayers. We are warned that inaction by Congress will hit main street in multiple forms. One, jobs will be lost. (This one isn’t good.) Two, it will become much more difficult to obtain a home mortgage. (Isn’t this part of what got us into this mess?) Three, people won’t be able to finance a brand new automobile with 5% down. (Consumers will no longer be allowed to be upside down on their cars!) Four, credit card limits will decrease. (Consumers will no longer be allowed the privilege of paying 15%+ interest!)

While we decry our political leaders variation of the blame game, we pretend to be wholly ignorant of the fact that we are playing the very same blame game. The current financial “turmoil” that we find ourselves in has plenty of blame to go around. Yes, the gutless politicians have a part, and the greedy Wall Street “fat cats” play a role as well. However, let’s not forget that many Americans signed onto risky mortgages to “live the American dream.” In my view “the American dream” has been hijacked and turned into a consumer culture obsessed with having everything that everyone else has. Or maybe we just need everything that the commercials tell us we should have. Either way, this “American dream” is a very costly endeavor. In fact it is so costly that for the average American it requires a significant amount of debt.

I know that I will sound like I’m from the 1950’s by pointing this out, but any debt you subscribe to means that you are promising your future efforts and/or earnings to someone else. Alas, for many Americans this mountain of debt has already been subscribed to and they are in for a long and difficult deleveraging process. The delcious irony of these indebted Americans asking for help from their government is almost too much for me to bear. The greatly indebted society (on a communal and personal level) views their salvation in becoming more indebted on a grander scale for a longer period of time.

The change that I can believe in is each American resisting the urge to buy the next thing that they don’t have the money to buy.

Author: Joseph Wendel | Permalink | 2 Comments | Daily Entries

John 14:6

Archive for October 2nd, 2008

Change I Can Believe In

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