BDO was organizing a tax day debt protest since our December interview with the Jacksonville Daily News reporter.  The idea was to help educate consumers about:

1. the dangers of taking out refund loans to get their refunds faster,
2. overspending their refund,
3. and then culminating in a Debt Protest on April 15th.

In late February, the tea party organizers started developing their idea for a Raleigh demonstration.  Since one of the ideas of the tea party is to protest debt, I thought it would be a good match to also come out, bringing my usual sign, to help educate the demonstrators about the necessity for personal budget management.

My family and I came out to the Raleigh, NC Tea Party on April 15th.  There were about 700 – 800 people when we showed up.  We stayed about an hour and walked around with our sign and stood on the sidewalks for the many cars passing by to see the demonstration.  I was also able to pass out a couple of our BDO business cards.

However, I think our message of debt education and reduction was overshadowed by the many people unhappy about the direction of this country.    It was a good crowd, but they were too focused on their emotions against certain national policies to hear the message that we need to slow our own consumption of debt, before we start hating on the government for their lack of fiscal discipline.

As one blogger put it on one of the Tea Party websites:

BDO,
You have some good thoughts, but my personal budget is my own business. If I rack up my credit card balances that is my own problem. It is wrong for me, or anyone else to think that you, or Rich, should come to my aid. There is nothing wrong with spending money like a drunkin sailer as that mate is spending his own money. Congress, all of them including the past two presidents, have borrowed against our income, our children and grand children. If steal your wallet, and give it to someone I deem as needy it is still a crime, no matter how worthy. The Constitution clearly states that it is a crime for the elected officials to do it also.  — Adam

The problem with this rebuttal is that the reason our economy is in its economic mess is because consumers have taken on too much debt, not that the government has taken on too much debt.  The housing crisis was because too many consumers took on loans they couldn’t afford which caused economic failure.  People are not spending money, because they are realizing that they have too much debt and need to get some breathing room from it, just in case they lose their job.  This whole downward economic cycle is because of consumer debt and the mishandling of personal budgets.

Our focus at BDO is not to delve into national politics for the purpose of changing any current policies.  However, we do understand that as we promote the idea for people to beat debt, it will have a national effect on the economy, because more people will not be spending outrageously.  We also understand the concept that if consumers, as a whole, started paying off all their debts that that would create mass havoc on the economy as visualized from this video.

Even still, we believe the greater good of becoming free from debt is worth the temporary pain of economic challenges.  That is why BDO believes that we CAN NOT expect our representatives to balance the budget, if we can not balance our personal budgets.  We have a $14 trillion consumer debt load, which is more than the national deficit.  If we are not able to balance our budget, save for the future, or stop overspending as consumers, how can we expect our representatives to do any different.  If they did, would they be representing us?  So, when we, as a nation, start balancing our personal budgets, I am sure we will start electing representatives that will do the same for the national budget.

So, we will continue to help promote the idea of beating consumer debt.  The Consumer Debt Clock has been going down for the past two quarters.  Our hope is that through our Educational Ads, Debt Evangelism, and constant promotion of debt reduction we will continue to see the Consumer Debt Clock go down.  Thereby helping people to stay away from debt and experience the freedom that is earned away from debt.

Learn more here.

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