The Economy Of Debt

Debt is a problem in our world today. Individuals and countries face constant debt challenges. There are a number of issues that exacerbate this problem:

1. High Interest Rates: People and countries struggle to pay off their debts because of the high interest rates. Debt payments go towards interest instead of the actual loans. As such, people become trapped in debt.
2. Easy Access To Debt:  We're surrounded by debt opportunities: credit cards, company cards, mortgages, bank loans etc.
3. Culture Of Consumerism: Aggressive marketing practices are used to influence us to buy more things. Also, we want to be greater than others so we buy things to appear more important than others, to appear more prestigious than others etc.
4. Unhappiness:  There's an emptiness within us that we can't seem to fill, no matter how much stuff we buy, but we still try. Debt gives us more 'money' to buy more stuff. The things we buy don't make us happy and debt makes us miserable, dealing with collection agencies etc. As such we become even unhappier so we buy more things to make us happier. We become trapped in an endless cycle of work, shopping and debt.

While debt initially gives us a short term good feeling because we have 'money', it's soon replaced by a long term bad feeling because we realize that we don't actually have money.

This debt issue can be dealt with if our internal qualities change from selfishness to bestowal, if we seek to benefit others instead of ourselves and if we become genuinely concerned for each other's welfare and well-being.

If our internal qualities change from selfishness to bestowal:

1. High interest rates will cease to exist because people won't seek personal profit and gain at other people's expense.
2. Access to debt will change and aggressive debt lenders who are only interested in making a profit will cease to exist. Also, we'll become united as one family and we'll help each other pay off our debts.
3. The culture of consumerism will end and it will be replaced by balanced consumption.
• All non-essential goods and services will cease to exist and our focus will be on meeting our basic needs: food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcare education etc.
• Aggressive marketing practices will end
4. We'll become connect with each other in mutual concern and responsibility and we'll become connected to God in quality. As such the emptiness that we feel inside will disappear and we'll become fulfilled and truly happy.
• Society will tell us that true happiness comes from connecting with others and we'll spend our days seeking to benefit others instead of ourselves.

May The One True God, The Infinite God, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob guide us, may He lead us and may He show us the way. God is with us and to Him we shall all return.

Copyright © 2013, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved.