Ever wondered how a little piece of magical plastic that enables massive amounts of crippling debt ended up benamed – “credit card”? Like: Here, have some credit. It’s good for you.
And it can be. Until it isn’t. Which is where the collective individual “we” are. Steps … so many steps …
A big part of my … awakening? Realization? Come-to? Comeuppance (ha!yesss)? Well oh well a big part of it was finally understanding that the entire system is a fraud, and that we are designed to fail.
I like that. I like being on the inside. Welcome. I’m probably late but HEY at least I got here.
The operation of our entire financial system is based on debt – in all its myriad forms– so no wonder so many of its citizens are so far under. [Hosea 4:6]
The American economic system we live under functions on consumption … consuming … using up … devouring … which is supported by debt – borrowing with a price, and that price is interest.
See, that’s where you lose me.
I get it; I understand the concept of interest = the value of the loan to the lender. The lender wants the interest, but wants the money from the loan back more. And failure to pay as promised brings in the penalties – and a higher price for the loan if the original terms for the loan aren’t met.
Yup. Gotcha. I totally get that interest is the cost of borrowing, but I don’t get why I should care. Sure – costs more to have not great credit … but so what? Debt is life, and life is going cost something regardless of how high the price.
Here, however, is where GOD! showed me where I veered off the better path.
I never joined my money marriage to Half’s, and behaved with my finances as if I were still single. In the beginning we had joint accounts, but over time, as my disrespectful and dysfunctional money marriage bled into our actual Half realized how unwise (unsafe) joining Half’s finances with mine was/is. Now? Half handles Half-life, and I handle mine.
Main problem is I never invited Half to my circus, and Half met my monkey waaay too late. We can work with what we’ve got, but we could be a lot better.
So. Here’s this. Our economic system functions on consumption propped by debt, and at current writing the United States National Debt Clock tells anyone who cares to look that tax revenues – money coming in – is a little less than $3T (yes—trillion, a thousand billion, which is a thousand million … yeh) and the total debt (money owed on stuff we got) is ahhh-bouuut $30T, or 10X what we have … as a nation … coming in. Nice.
Riiight. So quarter mil ain’t that bad. Moving on
The other little tidbit gleaned is that high debt is orchestrated by our very social systems.
Remember: it’s a “credit” card … you have good “credit” … which means you can get more “credit” … which is actually debt. BUT! Debt managed wisely / debt monkey trained well.
The market assigned “credit” to the name of a device of convenience that creates debt, and “debit” to the name of a equivalent device, but for cash purchases. Why not “debt card” for purchases with debt, and “cash card” for cash-equivalent payments?
Cache. “Credit” sounds fancier than debt, rolls better off the tongue, gooder PsychPop for the mental.
But it is so much more than that.
See – there is a certain amount of inconvenience, risk, and social stature associated with use of the debit card … hold on account funds until the transaction “clears” (whatever that means … don’t computers communicate in real time? isn’t electricity on both ends?) … inaccurate balances between conducting the transaction and completing the sale … unavailable for certain transactions / inadvisable for others (incl. rental cars, hotels, vacation packages, online shopping) … exposure of money to potential seizure (hacked account / identity stolen w/all my cash? What fun).
Banks now put the money back right away but the credit is conditional until the investigation is complete … aaannnddd if the bank finds that money was properly taken from your account – even if they’re wrong, even if they didn’t actually investigate – your money stays gone.
So, the message (from the banking system, from social convenience, from upward mobility) is to get credit cards and use credit cards as a means to obtain desired goods and services, rather than spend money directly out of your account.
Aaannnddd aNOTHER trick …
If one refuses to join the Credit Circus (i.e., cash-paid, debt-free life) – one will be penalized, because if one were to desire a good or service upon “get now/pay later” basis then one would likely be denied for lack of one’s performance in the Credit Circus … i.e., one has no credit … rather than demonstrate that one has used credit wisely by … refusing to perform in the Credit Circus.
However, if one joins the Credit Circus but performs poorly (i.e., fails to train the monkey) – one will be penalized with “bad credit,” although still capable of playing with debt monkey, albeit must feed monkey more.
And as well, if one joins the Credit Circus and performs well (i.e., monkey under total control) – one will be rewarded with … the ability to feed more monkey.
Aaannnddd aNOTHER trick …
In retrospect, I’ve noticed a certain amount of … retardation … in the practical application of financial skills for ordinary people. Proof?
In three parts: lifestyle propaganda, wage stagnation, and easy credit.
There also is a total absence in formal education of any practical money instruction; kids should be taught from preschool not that “this is a nickel” but “this is a nickel – don’t spend it.” Still not sure where students are supposed to get financial sense from if parents don’t provide it and the skill is not taught it in school. This lack of money mindfulness is so blatant that it must be intentional … buuuht now there’s the innernets and 15-year-old CEOs, so I guess being wholly on our own is OK. Got it. Moving on
Dr. Lecter got it right: “He covetsss.” Our eyes are often our enemies, and “we covet what we see, everyday.”
The internet is both yes and no. I’m a married hermit, and access to the world is nice but not necessary. Images convey more than what is shown, and the constant glorification—promotion—propagation of a generally unobtainable lifestyle (liestyle … yesss) on the internet, in my personal intersphere, dresses my brain.
But resisting the purchase isn’t the problem … it’s resisting the boredom I think the purchase will occupy, because this other li(f)estyle might exist and it looks kind of interesting, perhaps more so than my own.
Stuff is supposed to fill the void. It doesn’t, but it cost me of lot of money (wwwaaayyy too much) to realize that.
So – li(f)estyle media propaganda, yeh, but not all. Media doesn’t make any one do any thing … only makes the suggestion.
Know what’s better?
GOD! Christ Jesus. Yup. Here HE is again. And was. And always will be.
It was easy to fall into the trap of debt and nonsense because there was nothing else filling that void, that inner confused, that why. GOD! fills it up just great. I’m so sorry it took me so long.
And it sounds cheesy and missionary-door-knocking and pamphlety but it is! And it’s awesome!
My spirit is settled in His Holy Spirit. No digression. I’ve always been a Christian (in intention if not act, word or deed – ha!not) but had to wander in the weeds for some years before seeking a way out.
Finding Him is leading me from debt as a lifestyle.
Another part of the trick is the crush on wages; inflation and wage stagnation results in the earner working harder and longer to receive less for more.
Guess the question: Who’s crushing wages, and jacking up the cost of everything else?
Hmmm. Maybe the solution offered to the crush on wages and the high cost of everything is to just borrow to pay for it. Oh, wait… is…
Oh.
One of the big reasons I never cared about credit and FICO scores and all that was due to the fact that … somebody will always extend credit, and 18 months fixes ehv-ver-ree-thing. The debt might be on crap terms but “credit” still available, still accessible, and the thing desired is still the thing acquired (a RHYME … ba-dum-dump). Anybody can get credit, including dogs and dead people. Translation: anybody can get debt. The only question is cost – for how much, and for how long.
That’s the question I should have asked at 18.
Well oh well … like I said, ain’t dead yet. I’m slow, but when I get it I got it and I don’t let it go.
The entire point of the system of receiving goods and services is to include debt as part of the transaction, and it – the financial system upon which our economy is based and our nation functions – is rigged for the common man to fail.
Got it. The country lives by debt designed to cripple its citizens.
Riiight. Well pooter all up in that. Just because the system is a trick doesn’t mean I have to fall for it.
Half once told me to be smarter than the problem.
Well, problem, it took me a while, but I finally got you all figured out.