KEEPING UP

“Many Use Debt to Keep Up With the Wealthy” is the title of a recent lengthy article in the WSJ. Key points in this article: “people who wield their Visa Cards like swords as they cut thru the jungles of greed on a shopping crusade”. “Melanie, now 26 and married, wanted to match the affluence of her family but she and her husband had to borrow heavily to afford an affluent lifestyle. When problems set in, they had to sell their lakefront home to pay off debts”.

“Some experts are tracing the credit surge to the widening income gap between the rich and the rest of U.S. society. The gap widened substantially between 1970 and 2000, but the gap in consumption widened much less as moderate-income Americans turned increasingly to debt.”

When I was growing up going into deep debt was called “keeping up with the Joneses”. Many tried to keep up but most big spenders didn’t fool many of the neighbors. We knew they were borrowing it. Problem with borrowing is what a Mormon elder said during the depression: “Interest never sleeps nor sickens or dies…Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day of night.” Many of our problems in society can be traced to “keeping up” because envy, jealousy and greed are considered to be part of our mistaken values. We have become more and more of a “must have it now” country. The rich have it; therefore I want it too. Seems to be what many people think. Difference is, most of the rich keep their money. The rich give just enough of their wealth to encourage those who want to “keep up” and to be “accepted” to spend more than these “Joneses” can afford. Some “Joneses” will do almost anything to or to be considered “part of the elite” believing they will be accepted in the same circles as the wealthy when they actually are being used to promote the agenda desired by the wealthy elite. These people are generally considered to be the “middle class.”

The stupid poor try to gain financial equality by stealing fraud or drug selling. Most of our prison population is made up of poor people, some poor by choice and others poor by being too greedy. Some are dealt a bad hand from which they appear not to be able to escape. The shrewd rich who rob to get richer, if caught, are treated as “white collar” unlucky citizens and who after doing their short sentences; go back to their wealthy lifestyles. The poor, when caught, are like the Monopoly game; they go straight to jail. When released, the poor often return to robbing and defrauding because that is the only trade they know. Many people considered poor, wasted their opportunities to get a free education. They succumbed to “peer pressure” believing they would never need to learn an honest trade. Hollywood, peer pressure and advertising misleads people into believing they will get all the good things in life others have or appear to have without doing much work or much thinking.

The hard working people, who have values in their lives, don’t have a lot of money but know how to enjoy life anyway. I’ve met a lot of wealthy elite people who appear to unhappy despite their money and perceived standing in their communities.

People are bombarded every day by the lifestyles of the Hollywood elite. Advertising tells the buyer how easy it is to buy merchandise the buyer often can’t afford. Credit is easy. Unearned self esteem abounds. Greed is justified as need.

This envy of others spills over into communities where costly projects desired and partially funded by the wealthy are pursued by those doing the beckoning of the wealthy. Some community will always have something another community wants, even though they can’t afford it or justify it. When someone has a strong desire to have what others have but really can’t afford it, any means can justify the end.

Long lists of bankruptcies appear more and more frequently in the JS. However: you will never see a public body in these lists. Public bodies never have to run the risk of going broke. The people you elect, generally just raise your taxes, sell bonds and increase the cost of services. Individuals and private enterprise that spend more than they can afford usually go broke.

The gap between the wealthy and the poor grows daily. The have-nots are usually envious and jealous, but they often abuse each other. Or knowing they can never be on an equal footing with the wealthy, find a joint cause they believe benefits both the wealthy and not so wealthy; such as described in the book “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” Or they eschew the pursuit of money and just hate instead. (Think al Qaeda) Twenty-five or fifty million dollar rewards for turning in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama, the poor and have joined these terrorists in a common “cause” they believe will put them on an “equal” basis with their wealthy educated leaders.

This blog is not an attempt to paint the poor, the middle class and wealthy with a common brush. It’s an attempt to put in print what the WSJ would like to say but editorial restrictions probably prevent for reasons of being politically correct. My first blog back in August of 2004 warned my reader that this would not be a “politically correct” blog site.

Before anyone sends me a nasty comment, I hasten to add that there is a time when we all borrow money. There is also an obligation to individuals, the public sector and the private sector to pay it back. If you believe you will pay it back when you are requested to pay it back, but find that you can’t, chances are you shouldn’t have borrowed it in the first place.

There is an article in this week’s edition of the Peoria Times-Observer, a very well written article by DeWayne Bartels, titled “Good or Bad Debt”. I tend to agree with Gary Sandberg who says the City of Peoria “is at the bottom of a hole and we just keep reaching for a bigger shovel to try to dig ourselves out”. Chuck Grayeb disagrees; however Grayeb never saw a taxpayer dollar that he didn’t want to spend. But then Grayeb works for the public sector where tax raising and spending is seldom a problem. But remember, ANYTHING can be justified by the justifier. Just asks any policeman.

I close with this thought: “We have acquired the habit of exalting appearances over substance”.