Be Ready When the Hard Times Return

I can recall, while growing up, of stories told about “The Great Depression.” Of course, these stories always involved a warning: be careful how much you spend and what you spend on, because someday you may need that money to survive.

So naturally, I have to wonder about the yo-yo performance of the stock market recently. Fear and greed may be what moves the market, but in general it is a strong forecast of what lay ahead for the economy. Right now, it is telling us that uncertainty lay ahead; it may be telling us that another difficult time, even a recession, is in the near future. This would be devastating to the national economy and to thousands of families, probably the same ones who suffered through the last recession.

How do we get ready if the hard times return? One of the most prudent steps we can take is to reduce or eliminate our personal debt.

Julie Crawshaw of MoneyNews.com has recently written that the “Misery Index”, the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate, is at a 28 year high. It is 62 % higher than when President Obama took office.
Mort Zuckerman, who writes for U.S. News and World Report, has expressed concern that Mr. Obama’s stimulus plan has backfired against the President. Every job gained since 2000 has been wiped out in the past three years – over 7 million. Zuckerman argues that from the moment the Obama administration has come into office there has been no net increase in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs.

Then when Congress politicizes the nature of debt (debt is almost always bad, don’t they know that?) and raises the debt ceiling (the amount of debt the country may legally have – who do you think will pay for it?) we have to wonder just how long the republic will endure. Some things are simply out of our hands, and this economy is one of them. Is it all smoke and mirrors? This has to end sometime, and when it does there will be a lot of pain.

As I consider these articles and recall the stories told by grandparents and parents, I think of the Biblical admonition, “Owe no man anything, except to love one another” (Romans 13:8).

I really don’t know what would happen if another “depression” hit the country. I know that particular word would not be used by either government or media for fear of inducing riots in the streets. But I have come to believe that such a terrible episode is within the realm of distinct possibility.

Neither you nor I can live like the Federal government. No business can operate this way and remain solvent.

I encourage you to become personally disciplined in the use of money, and especially credit. Learn to control your impulses when shopping and learn to resist the temptation to impress others with what you have rather than who you are. Work toward becoming debt-free. Owe no man anything, except courtesy and politeness.

Do you need help in this area? There are several sources to assist you in developing a discipline as regards money. One of the better ones is www.mastermoney.org. Go here; learn from the experts, and …

be ready when the hard times return.

What Do You Want America to Be?

The stock market is on a roller coaster ride as investors wonder what is happening, our Washington politicians cannot produce a budget that is reasonable, and our President (as of this writing) promises people in Illinois that he “has a plan” to be unveiled after Labor Day.

The debt ceiling was raised recently, but do people really understand what this means? It means we may now legally acquire more debt. That is not more income, mind you, just more debt. If you keep acquiring debt and do not increase income, what happens?

Is the America you want for the future one where everyone works for the government? Where the citizenry considers itself entitled to government payments? Where the government obviously keeps everyone on a short leash? Or is it an America that maintains its heritage, with certain truths being self-evident: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (from The Declaration of Independence)?

One remedy that would help America’s debt crisis is the teaching of (unrevised) history. So says Niall Ferguson, a professor of history and business at Harvard University. “It’s impossible, I think, to understand the rise of the United States separately, as a story on its own of American exceptionalism. You have to understand it as part of the extraordinary explosion of dynamism from Western Europe, not just across the Atlantic, but all around the world” (Ferguson).

Okay, so when does he place the start of such dynamism, having begun in Western Europe and eventually contributing to the founding of America - the greatest nation in history? If you guessed after 1411, you are correct. You might have even guessed October 31, 1517 – the day Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral as a precise date, although Reformation thinking and discussions had begun prior.

It is impossible to understand America apart from understanding its history. And its history includes Christian people coming to these shores in search of religious freedom, and the right to follow their individual consciences. This is a direct result of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation made a major contribution to our understanding of personal responsibility, individual freedom, and treatment of others. The Protestant work ethic offered dignity to work of any kind and frowned upon laziness; the command to love your neighbor as yourself led to a compassionate society where advances in science and medicine occurred, and where honesty and trust were most highly valued in business dealings. Easy credit was discouraged and avoided. It was feared that too much debt would not just lead to financial ruin, but make it impossible to repay your neighbor. “Dirt, debt and the devil” were dreaded.

What is clear is this: to really know America we must understand its religious history, and the values that history represents. The values represented by Judaism and Christianity differ greatly from those of other faiths or from those of no faith. It is this knowledge that enables us to understand the country’s religious, political, and economic liberty.

The lessons of our Christian religious history will help us solve our debt problem and determine what we want America to be.