Dr. Franklin, Where Are You?
Deborah Venable
09/29/08
We
desperately need another treatment program.
An addiction exists that is threatening everything America has been, is,
or will become, and it’s time to nip it in the bud. Far too many Americans are OPM (Other People’s Money) addicts.
People
are judged today not so much on their character as on what their credit score
is. In order to be eligible for a nice
slice of the American Dream pie, one must have a very good credit score, and to
get that good score, one must have been a user of credit – OPM.
Credit
is a drug just as surely as any other substance that alters reality, and
addiction is all too often a foregone conclusion once the power it falsely
bestows is tasted. Once upon a time if
you wanted to buy something that you could not afford, you had two choices –
save for it or do without it. Now,
however, you are not expected to do without or save if you simply maintain that
great credit rating and tie yourself up in contracts to pay more than the item
you want is really worth.
There
would not be a financial meltdown occurring now if America was not full of OPM
addicts.
I’m
reminded of that old Ben Franklin quotation, “Neither a borrower nor a lender
be.” Boy, did he have that one
right!
Now
I know that we can never get rid of the concept of credit, for it has been in
use for too long, and in many ways credit has been the instrument of
progress. For people who do not want to
work or are not able to, and if they have amassed any money, they can simply
put their money to work for them and reasonably expect a handsome return in the
form of investment income. Nothing
wrong with that as long as the middlemen don’t get greedy. But remember, OPM empowers even as it makes
executives out of middlemen, and that power can destroy good character and good
sense. All this power naturally
attracts governing regulation, and with that comes a blurring of
responsibility.
The
end result has been the creation of an economy that thrives not on productivity
and the good will of human interaction, but more on a false reality of power
where there shouldn’t be, responsibility that is shirked on both ends and in
the middle, and a dependence on OPM for survival and success.
The
government should not be in the business of lending money nor paying the debts
of others. The people should never look
to government for either. If we still
cannot see the evil in the business of insurance, then we are truly blind. It is just one more business that government
has taken over to a devastating extent.
Insurance is the mainlining of OPM where interest is the pill. At least after you swallow the pill, you
know that you might have to throw it back up, but insurance is pumped into the
veins of life. You are “stuck” with it
– no pun intended.
With
the AIG, Fannie, Freddie et al bailout, our government is “insuring” that OPM
will remain the lifeblood of everything about our economy, and productivity
will always take a back seat to the business of insurance against
responsibility. High on a false reality
and reeling from the promise of a bad hangover, government will not be able to
kick the habit of OPM so it must be up to the suppliers. Individual owners of that vast but finite
wealth, taxpayers, must commit to the program of cleanup and get off the drug.
“Neither
a borrower nor a lender be.” Yes, we do
need Dr. Franklin!