Monday, January 4, 2010

Debt Doldrums

Debt is a pretty scary thing these days. Scary because we all seem to be in it and the laws that once provided relief for consumers have largely shifted to the creditors. It's easy to get bogged down beneath stacks of bills, hostile phone calls and, worst of all, our personal shame at having accrued the debt. A shame that is constantly reinforced by images of "good" citizens as those who pay their bills on time, drive a shiny new leased car, spend Saturdays mowing the lawn of their mortgaged to the hilt suburban home, all while working a forty plus hour a week job that brings in $30,000 a year. Then there's the "bad" citizens, those that miss credit payments, live in apartments or worse yet communal housing, drive old (possibly rusty) cars, and (god-forbid) work part-time or not at all.
Here's the problem with these two images, they've been created by businesses who profit from people who conform to their agendas. They spend billions in advertising to trick you into believing that success comes in the form of an iPod, a Nintendo Wii and a Visa platinum card. They want you to keep getting up and clocking in at your barely minimum wage job and to keep making the minimum payments on all those credit cards because that is how they PROFIT. A profit that comes at your expense, but one that you readily participate in every single day. Even on the days when you feel depressed and suffocated by all of your bills, instead of looking at the source of those problems (i.e. companies that profit from maxing you out), you internalize and name yourself as the perpetrator of this crime. You're not the criminal!!! Say it. Because until you realize this simple truth, you will continue to devote your short time in this world to working your life away to pay for items that you were deceived into purchasing. It's not easy to recognize that many of the items that you feel distinguish you as an individual (clothes, DVDs, gadgets, car) were actually desires implanted in your brain by a company that paid a team of psychologists and advertisers to do just that. But it is the truth. Stop being a slave to a system that allows less than 1% of the population to accumulate over 35% of the wealth in America (for more info. on these numbers check Who Rules America: out http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html). These are very significant figures and in order to step out of this system you must educate yourself. That is the key to your liberation.
On that note, check out a documentary that my husband and I recently watched called Maxed Out (directed by James D. Scurlock); you can find it at your local library, video store or rent it on youtube. This video will make you angry; it will open your eyes to predatory lending and how lives are actually lost, yes lost, to these types of unethical business practices. Do this now, today, while the thought is fresh in your mind. Choose to step off the conveyor belt and take back your life and your money.

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