A Nation of Debtors

We have become accepting of debt as if it were nothing to be concerned about. But I remember when I was young and the goal of every adult I knew was to get out of debt. To pay off the mortgage and the car loan and to eliminate debt from their lives. This was the time when getting a loan required collateral and there were limits on how much you could borrow on just your signature. It was a time when you bought a house not for an investment but for shelter and to raise your family. It was a time when credit cards were limited and every department store had its own credit card. Do you remember Sears Roebuck where America bought their appliances, tractors, lawn mowers, fabric to make their own clothes, and shopped the catalog?

We now have credit cards being sent in the mail to college students, credit limits increasing on cards you have without asking, and people don't have just one or two credit cards -- they have 10 0r more! Translate this into the national mentality and you will know why the federal debt is so huge.

We need to get back to the idea that you save for something you want not borrow, that you sacrifice for the luxuries of life. This sense of entitlement and desire to have it all is out of control. We need to live within our means and not try to speed up the attainment of our aspirations. We have become a society requiring instant gratification, planned obsolescence and the easy road to success.

What does this have to do with politics? Think about it, we just bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and AIG. Saved by the goverment, not left to deal with problems of their own making, too big to let fail. No wonder there is no sense of doom that the country is in debt in the amount of $9,636,985,481,135.92 as of today. (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/)

If these companies do not self regulate (lets face it greed wins out over self control everytime) then it is up to the government to establish parameters and strict oversight. Companies this large loose the moral character needed to impose reasonable restrictions on themselves. While it is leadership, leaders can only do so much in a large stockholder driven conglomerate. Then again leaders can also do a lot to establish a corporate culture that in a limted way can balance the greed and profit driven pressures.

Now reality is that stockholders are you and me. We are invested in our retirement funds, our bank accounts and our homes. It is natural to want to see returns and profits but again I get back to balance, the yen and yang of our market driven, capitalist society. Dont' get me wrong, I LOVE capitalism. It is what gives us opportunity and hope for a better life, but what I don't love is the separation we have from our own lives and the investments we make. We are not invested in our local bank, that we visit everyday and whose customers are our neighbors. The closest I can get to this is my experience with credit unions. The board is elected by the members, you have to be a member to use the services and if you want a loan you have to give details on your financial situation to a credit committee made up of your neighbors, co-workers or friends. This was debt creation up close and personal. Your friends were not going to give you a loan you could not afford. And if they did not give you the loan they told you why and also what you could do to get a loan in the amount you wanted - collateral or a co-signer or a bigger down payment to lower the amount of the loan. Pretty straightforward and that is where responsible lending and borrowing should start, with people that know the community and the people in it.

How have we reached this very sad state? Well we have raised our children to expect more. Though our own hard work and sacrifice, we gave them the opportunities and extras that we did not have. When was the last time you were in a home without a dishwasher. Would you rent an apartment without one now? It is expected and has moved from a luxury to a necessity. Ka-ching, ka-ching -- all these things add up and it is no wonder that our children go into debt for all the material comforts they had growing up. New not handed down clothes, new cars not old reliable transportation, the latest and greatest toy or gadget -- all these things are must haves for our younger generation. And we did it folks.

Now I predict that unless we figure out how to impose moderation on ourselves, this country is going to weaken and lose critical world standing. We need to stop trying to be the saviour of the world and focus on our own needs. Too many countries rely on us for aid, we are fighting a war that is costing us is more ways than money, we are not taking care of our own -- we need to focus on education at all levels, we need to participate in the world economy in ways that support our population -- creating jobs, training, social policies and programs that solve problems in proactive ways with long term goals to improve our country and its citizens.

We need responsible and enforceable immigration laws. Our laws and policies need a major overhaul. But we need to stop building fences and start creating positive ways to supplement our work force and solve the illegal immigrant issues by creating avenues that deal with the issue in humane and intelligent ways -- not with hate, anger and failing to get to the root of the problem - our restrictive immigration policies. Don't make illegal immigrants legal but provide a special temporary work permit which allows them to work while paying taxes and social security into a system that needs this to support the services that we are providing anyway. Embrace them and tax them don't shuffle them off from place to place, spend money catching, housing and deporting them. Right now they are successfully avoiding the system, bring them into the system so you can control them. The path of least resistence is often the solution. Create the day labor sites, provide temporary work permits and tax id numbers, collect taxes and social security, enforce the minimum wage laws and the worker rights, remove the black market and create the brown market that we control. And streamline the process for immigrants who contribute to our societal fabric to become contributing members -- make it easier to get the green card or to become a citizen. If social security is going to collapse because of slowing population growth and the retirement of baby boomers, lets beef up the ranks of contributors. Doesn't this make sense? And there seems to be a little justice to it also, my retirement being supported by new immigrants paying into our social system.

Well I guess I will have to get off my soapbox now and hope that this makes sense to someone out there.