Archive for the '$ or Your Life' Category
You Can’t Get Something For Nothing…Forever.
Please note: I am not trying to chastize anyone. Perhaps I am speaking to myself, because I have been a part of the problem for some time as well. Perhaps I’m trying to give myself hope in the face of what appears to be some dark times ahead.
In this world of continual orange alerts, fear-mongering, and get-them-before-they-get-you politics, I’d like to actually clear my throat and say,
“Ahem - has anyone noticed that our economy, as we know it, is gone?”
I am not trying to use fear tactics; I am not trying to sound an alarm. I’m trying to ring a bell. This round of incompetant leadership and fiscal values is over. This round (read: century) of entitlement and manifest destiny is done.
Oh, people have noticed that there are issues. Possible recession, interest rates, housing bubble, credit crisis - a lot of terms are being used to explain away what’s going on. But everyone thinks that we’ll have a low point, and things will pick up again. Just like people tend to think that gas prices will go down again, someday.
I don’t think so. I think the face of how our economy works is changing. Financial companies that were around through the Great Depression are now disappearing off the face of the economic photo of America.
- Some of the largest, entrenched financial influences are gone - Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- Goldman Sachs had poor results this quarter.
- AIG is looking like it is going to tank.
- The Dow tossed off 500 points on Monday.
- The leaders of the economy have been culled and thinned, and only a few are left to monopolize the control over our country’s financial strength.
- Real Estate, the thing that every economics class taught never lost value is doing just that.
- The United States is in more debt than we have ever been in before - more than the 9 trillion “ceiling” agreed upon in 2006.
- We just expect the government to bail us out. And yet, as it tries, we freak out more.
Most Americans are up to their armpits in debt as our government and banks says, “Please…go spend more, drive our economy!” In response, consumers say, “Sorry…I can’t drive, I can’t afford the gas.” Even those who are selling gas can’t afford to SELL it anymore.
And it isn’t like Americans would know what to do to save the economy anyway. Most Americans are no longer literate about dealing with money or balancing budgets. Alan GreenSpan says this is the worst economy he’s ever seen, which is saying something because he’s seen a lot of our economy.
Personal debt for individuals is higher than ever. It appears that Americans (including our government leaders) have forgotten that you can’t get something for nothing. Because that’s what we’ve been doing for the past 20 years - purchasing on credit with no method to pay it off. We’ve been using up our resources without replacing them with something else. We’ve become a throw-away nation - use and discard - without considering the impact of that sort of living.
Gary Hart, who wrote this article about America’s Next Chapter, was quoted in this opinion article :
“We’ve been consuming more than we’ve been producing. We’ve been spending more than we’ve been earning,” he told me. “It’s been a big holiday.”
It’s ok, though, that our economy is gone. Because that means we can make a new one. A better one that is no longer based on the industrial age road map. One that empowers its people to make choices that are good for them, not choices that are responsive to marketing and keeping up with the Joneses. Choices based on what we need, not what we want, and to learn how to tell when our “wants” are really just ways to pacify ourselves in our unhappiness.
It’s time for a new round of fiscal responsibility and taking a good, hard look at the lifestyle we believe is inherent to being an American and check in with reality. We aren’t entitled to cheap gas, new wardrobes, and McMansions. We are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And technically, our entitlement to that is just someone’s opinion, and constantly tested by corrupted corporations and leaders.
Perhaps our definition of happiness has gone awry. We can change that too.
So what are you going to do?
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