Monday, November 24, 2008

One Nation Under Debt, Divided, and Dying

The Baby Boom generation brought upon us massive materialism, cleverly packaged as capitalism and then consumerism. The symbol of materialism in America is the credit card. It is probably the worst product thrust upon humanity since the Dutch decided that black people make great slaves. Indeed, the Bible even states that the debtor is slave to the lender.

Really, I can't think of any good reason to hold on to a credit card. Not one. Everything it provides can be taken care of through other means. To be honest, there is no real reason to have one, especially now that you can have a debit card.

I am a regular listener of the Dave Ramsey show. Last week, he talked about two stories that were of interest to me. Firstly, he talked about how federal regulators rejected a debt forgiveness plan proposed by lenders. In this story, though, what you don't read is that the lenders wanted to be able to count the forgiven debt on their books in full, which is why the regulators rejected it. These lenders are pond-scum, trying to get away with enroning their customers. Debt can be forgiven already, it's even considered to be a taxable event for the individual who has his or her debt forgiven.

Another story was how American Express was asking for 3.5 Billion in bailout money. What's ironic is that American Express has the nastiest, most depraved group of people running their debt collections department that Dave Ramsey has ever dealt with. I take his word for it because he has counseled hundreds of people over the past 20 years and even has a few personal stories of his to tell when he had to deal with them. Why should we the people bail out a company that has destroyed more marriages, ruined more lives, and caused more people to consider (and sometimes follow through with) suicide than the tobacco industry?

So really that's what it comes down to. Our nation is full of greedy, self-serving individuals who would rather charge away their future and their children's future than save for the future. Believe me, the best thing you can do for your life and your children's lives is to cut up your credit cards and never do business with those morons again.

Otherwise, you are merely part of the problem, not the solution.