• Myths Of Debt To Be Corrected For 2009

The year 2008 brought a rude awakening to a population enthralled by a bottomless availability of cash. Mesmerized into debt accumulation we now wonder how we could possibly have overdone it.

As we launch into a new year, it might bode well to be reminded of some of the myths we enjoyed so much these past two decades.

• Debt is your key to achieving the lifestyle you deserve.
This well-oiled refrain was repeated ad nauseum throughout the past quarter century, to the point where the affirmation morphed into an accepted assertion. I borrow, I spend, and therefore I am. The Fed, Congress and the White House have historically presented a united front to convince taxpayers that they should seize all opportunities to consume. It has been the patriotic duty of all citizens to consume impulsively and with abandon, taking absolute custody of the title Consumer.
• Spend yourself into economic recovery.
It appears that all media has bought into this myth. Abundance of noise from economists and pundits has been particularly effective for too long on this one. The economy needs you. Business needs you. There are bonuses to be paid out at the top that will trickle down and stimulate all corners of your economy. Your guilt will get you if you don’t spend everything you can borrow. Forget saving for a rainy day. Forget budgeting, and absolutely reject the concept of finding balance between funding your needs and setting aside money for your future unanticipated emergencies. You don’t want this recession to devolve into a depression, do you?
• The Debt you are drowning in is not your fault.
How could you possibly have known that buying your first home for $500,000 with nothing down and a variable rate mortgage would launch a perfect storm through your future, ravaging your state of mind?
• Wall Street, The Fed, and the World Bank know what they’re doing and they know best what is good for you.
This one requires little delineation here. Dissecting it might even be a little too depressing, and might dissipate the joy of a brand new year. We'll save it for a future article.
• Becoming highly leveraged is a right of passage into nether regions of society.
Leverage’s modern redefinition is imbued with notions of achievement beyond simple debt. It embodies an ultra-modern conversion of water to wine. Wall Street was able to stretch the boundaries of debt with the creation of derivatives, those unfathomable, little understood but outrageously leveraged vehicles that were so effective in creating billion dollar bonuses. With government advocacy, the banking industry distended debt to the extreme boundaries of leverage, inventing unfathomably creative debt instruments hiding behind ambiguous terms such as "derivatives." The beauty of this myth rests in its apparent ability to have magically enchanted the top of the economic intellectual food-chain.
• You should not wait until tomorrow to acquire what you can get today through debt.
Instant gratification has become a firmly entrenched affliction. Capricious satisfaction of wants has transplanted patient and planned fulfillment of needs or considerations for the future. It is almost as if there has been a very deep shift across a broad swath of consciousness, and now the thrill of the chase no longer provides the joy it once did. Have indulgence and consumption become the voyage?

Intuitively we have all known for over a generation that we were living a great paradox. Lifestyles were better than ever, yet in the core of our beings, we all felt an unmistakable angst. Since the mid eighties, each one of us sensed that very conflicting dichotomy between what we were doing, and what we knew was right. We were over-borrowing ourselves into the highest standard of living known to any society in history. Political leadership cynically applauded.

2008 slapped us into acknowledging that our intuitions were right, and that long-term health of an economy requires savings and also requires investments. It has been years since it made any sense to leave money in a savings account to collect interest. Inflation deducted from the interest left a shrunk balance at year-end. Bernanke’s interest rate cut to a half percent, will have little impact on borrowers’ access to loans. Panic set-in, and attitude shift will be slow process. Congress and The Fed should revisit the government's interest rate policies. Taxpayers should be looking forward to making money on their "savings," … in the bank.

We are thinkers, inventors, creators, producers, nurturers, and spiritual beings, who can enjoy a material abundance we ourselves define and frame. We decide the nature and scope of our intellectual and spiritual sufficiency. Rather than giving in to external strafing of our decision making, it is high time each of us gave a little more room to our own individual Intuitive Knowers, abating the consequences of our overwhelming egos and intellects. Human satisfaction and progress should not be measured in GNP growth, or intoxicating accumulation of possessions. The voyage has become exhausting. It is time to sweep aside the myths. It is time for living with less anguish, and acquiescing to the truly profound joys life offers far from the sirens of debt.