During Christmas time we have a lot of family and friends around. One of the age gaps I have noticed has to do with debt. The younger the adult is the more they seem to feel free to take out financial debt. All but the rich have a major debt on graduating from a university. Purchasing a car and house just adds to the debt. Many adults, young and middle age, think of major debt as a normal part of life. They act like modern day politicians spending money they do not have, putting future generations into more debt. Democrats and Republicans do not like debt but they keep on loaning. Some call this ‘living on the come’, spending money that you anticipate will come.
My parents always paid for things in cash. They did not even own a credit card. We have a credit card but pay it off every month. I just received a letter today from my credit card company saying they have raised the level of my credit to some ridiculous high amount. They are encouraging me to spend more than I have. They make more money when I have a debt and they can charge me interest.
Making money on money or debt is a big business these days. People are all concerned about their credit rating being good. A good credit rating only means you are good at accumulating debt and paying it back, even gradually with interest. My parents in today’s world would have a poor credit rating since the never purchased anything with credit.
Americans borrow money from banks, banks from the Federal Government and the Federal Government from China and other countries. The money of the masses flows up to the few on top and the few on top use the money to make more money. In legal courts, in elections and even in what is taught at a university money matters. Morality, Common Good and Values take a back seat to money, money owned, borrowed, used or debt.
The rich make money where the economy is good and when the economy is poor. The poor lose money when the economy is good and when the economy is bad. In our civilized nation we say we no longer have ‘debtors’ prisons’, where one stayed until debts were paid off. However, we do have more poor people in prison per population than every other country in the world. The poor come out of prison stigmatized even more from achieving jobs and education. They fall deeper in debt and often go back to prison. Even after paying their ‘debt to society’ people come out of prison deeper in debt and more stigmatized. Maybe we still have debtors’ prisons.
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