I don't usually take on politics or anything close to it, mostly because there are so many things that are far more important to discuss. But the time has come for us all to admit something...it's time to "pay the piper" for years of extravagant living, extravagant borrowing, and saving nothing. And that's just our elected representatives!
Don't blame it all on them, however. Those same descriptive phrases apply to vast swaths of the American public. The average American family has eight (8) credit cards. EIGHT! Does anyone agree with me on the completely stunning and ridiculous magnitude of that number? Americans also currently have a negative savings rate. What that means is that most Americans put living expenses on those credit cards each month, literally spending more than they make. And we blame the government for doing the same thing! (lots of exclamation points; have you noticed? I think they are needed. This is an exclamation point kind of situation.)
Our financial system is dead, and we need to admit it. The Federal government is doing its best to slow down the death, but dead it is. When you are falling off of a 1000 foot cliff, it doesn't matter whether you are falling in slow motion or at 32feet/second/second. The end is still the same. It's not the fall, but the stop at the end, that kills you. Which leads me to a quick digression...did you know that some doctors and emergency rooms call injuries resulting from a fall "rapid deceleration injuries?" Strange, but true.
Let's think about what has happened recently; the financial system, long upheld by mortgage-based securities began to collapse as it became apparent that those "securities" weren't. Almost inexplicably, the Feds decided to pick and choose between which companies should fail and which should receive an injection of taxpayer money to allow them to continue their devastating business practices. Then the Feds decided that we needed a massive injection of taxpayer funds to save the whole system, all while the markets were losing 50% of their value. Now we have the Madoff Ponzi scheme, wherein $50 billion went up in smoke, probably expensive Cuban cigar smoke. "For Sale" signs are rapidly going up all over Palm Beach, Westchester County in New York, and tony enclaves all across New Jersey and Connecticut. Finally, just this morning, the news broke that many states are closing in on bankruptcy in their unemployment fund accounts. This is because our wonderful state legislators cannot keep their hands off of any pot of cash in sight. Now THEY are asking the Feds for more of our money to keep the obligations they made and for which all of us are taxed regularly.
The system is dead. As one of my friends used to say, "D-E-D!" Dead. So what do we do now? Mor on that in another post soon. There is a way out. It will hurt, but it is there. God's grace surrounds us, and His common grace can give wisdom to even those who do not acknowledge Him at all. Pray for that.
Comments