LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Live Within Means, Avoid Credit Debt
It’s official: the U.S. has been in a recession for the past 12 months. It’s clear that many people are to blame – crooked bankers and stock market traders, inept Congressmen who lack integrity and a president who has failed to demonstrate good fiscal leadership. But what about you and me? Have we contributed to the economic crisis? The answer is yes. As a nation we believe we are entitled to everything that we desire. We make purchases that we cannot afford and use plastic to pay for it. We spend rather than save, and consequently live paycheck to paycheck, blaming others for the mess we are in, when in truth it is our own fault because we lack the self-discipline to live within our means.
But isn’t it true that we are actually doing the economy and the nation a favor by spending and consuming? That’s what we’ve been told by the current administration and Congress who forked over billions of dollars in stimulus checks earlier this year and now are doing it on a corporate level for every business entity with their hands out.
Despite theories that wealth can be created by extending and using credit, the truth is that wealth is built through work and currency that is backed by assets – gold or goods or real estate. It is an illusion to think that you can borrow your way to prosperity.
So what can each of us do? First, stop living on credit. Pay off everything you can. Second, live within your means. Third, consider making, growing and selling things that you can do yourself. Not only will it mean additional income for you, but it will keep dollars circulating in the community.
It has also been shown that buying locally produced goods reduces our dependence on foreign oil. Another thing each person can do is to stop looking for entitlements and handouts from the government and look for ways to become more self-sufficient.
This nation was settled by people who came here because we offered opportunities to succeed never seen before anywhere in the world. It is still possible, but requires self-discipline and initiative instead of excuses.
Scott Cottrill
Abingdon, Va.
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Yeah Buddy!
Ignorance is bliss. Also self inflicted.
Scott, good blog, My wife and I have practiced living with-in our means for 37 years now, it works. We did’nt get rich, but we’ve been blesses to afford whatever we needed, not wanted, but needed. I’ve lived by these two rules, “Always but your needs before your wants, and learn to know the difference”, “Never purchase anything that you know you can’t afford” . I’ve passed that little tid-bit of “family values” to both of my now adult children, I can only hope they pass it along to theirs.
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR !!!!!!!!!!!!
LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS !!!!!!
If you live below your means then you have some money to save.
Learn the laws and learn how money works. Then pay your self first by poutting 1/3 or more of each pay check into a saving account !
PAY YOURSELF FIRST !
Well thank you, Moonlight.
I’ve always wanted to do bong loads on capital hill.
Are you saying that the housing market would not have contributed to the recession if people had paid cash for their homes? Blaming the people is just another way the politicians use to keep everyone’s eye off the ball. Credit did not cause the recession. Wall Street did not cause the recession. Detroit did not cause the recession. These things are just the latest in a long line of symptoms of the real problem. The problem was caused by DC. Say that again, this problem, our recession, was caused by our representatives in DC.
Before everyone starts pointing at the other side of the aisle, this most definitely was a bi-partisan effort. DC is the one who deregulated, abolished protectionism, and gutted the labor code. Regulation keeps the greed in companies from running wild. Protectionism kept our jobs here instead of in China. No matter what you think of unions, they provided the basis of a well paid workforce that allowed our companies to prosper supplying the demand provided by that well paid workforce. Slowly but surely DC destroyed the demand necessary to make an economy work. Scott, you are exactly right when you say that “wealth is built through work and currency that is backed by assets.“ The only real growth in economy is when you take a raw material and turn it into a finished product. We do very little of that anymore. We go in the hole just with China anywhere from 600 million to 1 billion dollars per day. It just depends on whose figures you use. That has been going on for a long time. That is what caused the recession. We are slowly but surely going BROKE and DC is still trying to blame someone else. How about forgetting the blame and just fixing the problem. We need jobs. We need manufacturing jobs. We need to create wealth just like Scott said. We need to turn raw materials into finished products.
Well said, Scott.
And I agree…..
“Third, consider making, growing and selling things that you can do yourself. Not only will it mean additional income for you, but it will keep dollars circulating in the community.“
I encourage all people in the area to grow pot in their closet. Make a little extra cash while keeping an easy head during troubled times.
Remember, extra-systemic cash is recession-proof.
Rock on.
;-]_~
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