Are You In Love With Debt?

Trading and man have gone together as long as there have been two people with one having something the other wanted. In fact, you can find records of trade stamped into clay tablets going back for thousands of years. So has been the history of man, gather, hunt and create, but use the excess to trade for the things that you just couldn’t get yourself. Unfortunately, debt has probably been around almost as long as trade has. Being somewhat cynical, I would suggest that debt probably came into existence about 5 minutes after the first traders got together and discovered that one had more to trade than the other. Then again, when it comes to evil in this world, I tend to lean towards the pessimistic side of things. Never the less, though debt has been with us a long time, the fight to eliminate debt has been going on almost as long. We can find arguments against debt in the Bible and in most of the major religions of the world. Yet, we are a nation of debtors who seem to not only enjoy debt, but now view it as such an incremental part of society that anyone who lacks debt is viewed as being weird or abnormal.

It has gotten so bad, that we are now bombarded with the message that if you don’t have credit, you are unworthy of a job, housing, or any normal activity that we as Americans view as being necessary to living in the United States today. You don’t believe me? How many times a day do you hear about services that check your credit score? What about Identity theft? How many job applications don’t have that box that gives the company the right to check your credit score? Try paying cash to rent a car! It is impossible to do without a credit card, though I will admit, they are beginning to accept debt cards, but they still want a credit cards as back up. Want cable at home, you will have to go through a credit check even if you want to place a large deposit. The idea that we must have credit to function has permeated our society so much, that the idea of paying cash is now viewed as being criminal. Yes, if you deposit too much cash at your bank, the Federal government will be notified, as law requires it. Pay cash for a car, the same thing occurs.

Yet debt is only a way for those with power to control those without. If you owe them, then they can control your actions. Do you hate your job? Why won’t you quit? I know, you can’t as you have bills to pay, which unless I am mistaken would include credit cards, furniture, car payments, etc. Am I wrong? Try eliminating all of your debt, paying that house of early or even selling it and living a life of owing nothing. It will give you a taste of freedom that few in our society truly feel. For if you have debt, they own you and you are truly not free.

Enjoy!

How did this happen to a nation of hardworking industrious people? Though there was a time where personal debt was considered something to avoid, that really changed after the 2^nd World War. At that time, our troops were returning home after several years of war and were looking to get married, start families, and begin the life they put on hold to serve our nation. Yet, most didn’t have a dime to their name and no job on top of that. Then comes our good Uncle who offers us low down or no down loans on housing, school loans so that we could continue our education, etc. It was the beginning of our addiction. Since then, we have been bombarded with messages of how easy it was to acquire the goods and services of our dreams, all we needed was to be able to afford the payments. How many of us remember the easy lay-a-way programs that all of the major departments stores once had? Under the lay-a-way terms, you put small cash down payment and paid the rest over a 30-90 day period. Then the item was yours to take home, but things changed and money became easier to borrow. The credit card became a real moneymaker for the banks.

Originally, the credit card was intended to provide for those who traveled, but didn’t want to take the risk of carrying large amounts of cash. Then some bright mind at the bank realized that they were making more of a profit margin on their credit cards than they were on the regular loans they made. So the marketing of the credit card became the norm. People were encouraged to view having a credit card as being a needed item if they were to be viewed as being successful. Later our college age children were targeted and the card became the de-facto evidence of a right of passage. If you didn’t have a card, then you simply weren’t an adult. The result, virtually the entire nation became credit card holders and as a result they began to acquire debt as we never had before.