Addicted America

As we race toward a budget deadline, financial reports, statistics, debt data, all of the sudden budget proposals are coming out of the woodwork as the press and the politicians tell us that Armageddon is on the horizon if a signature on a piece of paper in the U.S. does not prevent world financial collapse.  If believed, all that has taken place since that near-secret meeting at Bretton Woods in July 1944, would be coming to an end.  That was the day near the end of World War II that world leaders, with the U.S. clearly in charge, set the standards for the world’s financial practices with the intent of creating order out of chaos.

Some significant statistics have caught my attention from the disclosures never discussed with seriousness until now and I merge them with my understanding of what this country became in those recovery and growth years following the war. The U.S. postwar economy is one of the world’s success stories. But like some of those success stories at the family and community level that were part and parcel of that consumer-driven, self-governing, self-supporting, free society, there were always situations where addictions trumped judgment creating suffering for many.

From time to time, as we moved through life in our communities, a story like this might surface, and often from what most considered an unlikely source:

A local individual with a responsible job, decent income, maybe more than decent with regular bonuses or overtime, raises his family, helps educate his children, maybe has a summer retreat, sailboat and some amount of discretionary income, all of sudden becomes the subject of an ugly story of addiction, massive debt to unlikely sources, and a litany of misrepresentations and falsehoods as his entire lifestyle collapses around him.

Novels have been written about the responsible successful individual who becomes attached to “the ponies”, high stakes card games and gambling, drugs, secretive expensive secondary lifestyle, and to prevent detection becomes indebted to outside sources so that maintenance of a front can continue while his productive and family supportive ability declines rapidly. Debt multiplies geometrically and personal behavior is compromised to the demands of the lender, with threats of “no more” driving the deception and fraud on all those around him.  Pretty soon, he can pay only the “juice” and without some serious truth telling and support from family and friends, with willingness to give up what is supported by the ongoing money/interest marathon, it is only a matter of time before all is lost for more than just one.

I believe the postwar U.S. economy has become a large scale model of what I have outlined and we are in effect an Addicted America.  All those secure jobs in ongoing industries that provided decent options and benefits to more individuals than ever existed in history is on the cusp of failure.  Statistics tell us we have not really created any new jobs in this country in over 10 years, only new residents taking jobs at lower pay than their predecessors while the government prints and borrows money to pay folks who are not working in ever increasing numbers for ever-expanding periods of time. The lies about what we are doing continue to the working faithful as their contributions are used for purposes that actually erode their own future security by sending more of this country’s largess elsewhere and multiplying the debt they will pay next year.  The cheap consumer goods served up actually cost much more than they appear as they are in essence subsidized by money to be borrowed from the same consumer next year  On the street this is known as “6 for 5” payable weekly.

So the economy is not what it appears to be, for most families income potential has dropped considerably in both real terms and purchasing power. The bonuses and overtime are gone and we have been encouraged by our leadership to double mortgage our homes and they not only helped us do it, they created the Government corporate loan sharks Fannie May and Freddie Mac to hold all the paper. (You do know that 90% of all home mortgages are held by the federal government, don’t you?)  Every time the Feds make a new mortgage deal with those in default they just increase the balloon at the end, putting you further in debt and longer under their thumb. Is that any different from the corner loan shark?

As a country we are that addicted individual who can’t admit failure, borrows more and more deluding himself that the more gambling we do in that big chess game known as world politics and power plays, that the bailout will come before the loan shark comes to collect. As Pogo said “we have me the enemy and he is us”

So what is the remedy if one is to take abrupt remedial action for the addicted and indebted?  At the family and local government level is goes like this:

1. Wife, or responsible person takes away the checkbook

2. Everyone in family sacrifices some of what they became accustomed to for greater long term good.

3. Government gets responsible and puts those who are predators out of business (oops that is the federal government itself)

The question this time is can our government emulate the family?

Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad for now.  You can vote the others out next year.

Jim Foster