Beating Debt

This week was called a “crisis” by many politicians and media personalities.  The word “crisis” is being used as if no one realized there was a problem until this week. 

The good news is that there are several people in positions of influence and power who have ideas for fixing the current “crisis” in the financial markets.  However, all those plans are just Band-Aids slapped on top of the real problem.  The real problem in our nation is so close to home that no one wants to talk about it for fear it would hurt to hear the truth and cause “more pain” in the economy.  The real problem in America is an ugly hybrid of consumerism and greed.  This idea goes along with an article that my friend Meg emailed me titled, “The Gospel of Consumption“.

Why are banks, insurance companies, and financial companies failing?  Because we are not paying our bills.  Yes, there is some blame to be assigned to those companies that took advantage of the greedy housing market a few years back.  But really, no one forced anyone else to  take on so much debt that they would be unable to pay it all back.  We knew the risks involved, and we were willing to roll the dice.  Now, we are caught between a rock and a hard place.  Even worse, the government is wanting to go into more debt to bail out our bad decisions.

We, consumers (not the government), are the ones who tallied up $14 trillion dollars in debt.  We are the ones who spent too much too quickly.  We are the ones that can fix this if we decide to stop spending money we don’t have.  The power is in our hands.

I understand the economic hardships that would come to this nation if everyone stopped spending money they didn’t have and started paying their debts.  Our economy’s foundation is debt.  But I must ask this: How much worse will it be in the future if we do not reduce our debts today?

Our consumerism drove America to greatness.  But somewhere along this journey, we stepped way over the line by purchasing too much, too often on credit and loans.  It must stop.

America’s Constitution grants us “Life, Libety, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, but our spending depicts more of an attitude of “Good Life, Every Liberty, and Instant Happiness.”

My plea to you is to look at your finances and find the categories that are dragging your budget down.  Make the hard decision to cut that from your lifestyle.  A smaller house, less stylish car, or less stuff will make you much happier than you can imagine because Debt is Slavery.

With everyone working to create a lifestyle of beating debt, we will be able to permanently fix this “crisis.”

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Image by: Martini Captures

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