Financial Responsibility

As I was bemoaning the woes of this long, Minnesota winter the other day, I felt weighted down, as if in armor. A poem came to mind. (See Shedding the Mask on River Tree Whispers, my poetry blog.) As I wrote it down, other conditions of this bleak time also began to surface, as if to support my lament. Not wanting to get up on a political soapbox in that e-venue, I step up here.

And to start, I’d like to say that, even though I did not vote for Obama (I wrote in Ron Paul), I do not dislike our new president. I think he has a good heart. Barack Obama gives many people more hope than they had before—in economy and world harmony. That can never be wrong. And to finally have a black president indicates a giant and positive change of consciousness. My best wishes and heartfelt support goes to President Obama.

But that does not change the fact that taking on debt to pay off bad debt is never a good idea, nor is it even possible. It will never be paid off. Eventually we will have to face the full measure of consequence and responsibility.

The right course is to stop borrowing. Stop creating dubious programs we can’t afford. Stop subsidies that prevent the self-righting of a free market. Stop funding an illegal, private corporation that charges us interest to use our own money. Check it out. The system that taxes our productivity and maintains an arbitrary value of its worth is not part of our government, nor was it ever authorized by it under constitutional law. It can be stopped.

Increasing the money supply (printing money) only raises the cost and lowers the value of all that we have and produce. And the burden is on us. Not the banks or the automakers with poor and illegal business practices. Making risky loans for houses we can’t afford, knowing profits return in interest as long as payments are made and then foreclosing when we can no longer afford them—this is wrong. Withholding the technology for clean and renewable energy and fuels because of arrangements with suppliers of unclean energy (with all the political and global manipulation in its support) is criminal.

Remember, public servants serve us and must be accountable to us. When we demand a return to constitutional responsibility and prosecution of criminal activity we will once again be heading in the right direction. We have been blind or ignoring what is evident too long. Because of that, it won’t be easy, but only we can make it right.