The Shocking Truth about Modern Day Enslavement
Slavery, it’s still happening in this country;
in fact, it’s happening across every nation. Don’t think that just because we
have entered the 21st century slavery still doesn’t exist. It
absolutely does.
All that’s changed is who is enslaved.
Oxford dictionary defines slavery as “a person who works very hard without
proper remuneration or appreciation.”
Sound familiar?
Does that definition remind you of someone who works themselves to the bone for
a corporation who doesn’t care about them at all, and will still let them go
the minute profits fall even in the slightest bit?
Oxford also describes a slave as “a person who is excessively dependent upon or
controlled by someone or something” or “a device, or part of one, directly
controlled by another.”
Let’s look at this a bit closer. How, in our modern society, could a person
become excessively dependent or controlled by someone or something? What would
make a person become excessively dependent or controlled?
To be controlled and become dependent on
something or someone a person must believe they need this thing so badly they
would do whatever asked of them. It must be something that will make a person
stop doing the things they actually want to do, to do the bidding of someone
else.
Can you think of what would make you give up the life you want to live to go
work for something else?
I can. Money: People will do just about anything to get it. They’ll allow
themselves to be controlled by corporations into doing whatever it is they want
them to do so they can get some.
We use the money we get to go out and buy things. We buy houses, cars, jewelry,
entertainment, the list goes on and on. Many people don’t have enough money to
buy everything they want, and they’ll be damned if they don’t have everything
their neighbor or in-law’s or friends have.
So what do they do?
They buy things on credit and go into debt.
Debt can absolutely control a person. Isn’t it why you work so hard at your job
every day? So you can pay off your creditors including the bank that owns your
mortgage, your car, your loans, etc.
Debt is the control mechanism, the creditors are the slave owners and you are the
slave. You are a wage slave, doing the bidding of the bosses at your job to
make enough money to pay off your debts.
These teachings are nothing new; they’ve been around for hundreds of years.
Even the Bible teaches about the dangers of debt. There is a famous proverb
that reads “the borrower is the servant of the lender.” So how come hundreds of
millions of people around the world have willingly gone out and made themselves
servants of creditors and slaves to debt?
As I said before the only thing that’s changed between slavery in the 17th
and 18th centuries and slavery in the 21st century is who
is enslaved. Back then whites enslaved Africans. Now-a-days banks and
corporations enslave consumers who buy more than they can afford. Being in debt
is the modern form of slavery.
Certainly there are times when it is necessary to buy things on credit and
borrow money. Going in debt to buy anything is not advisable, but there are
instances when a bad debt can become a good one. Buying a home that is at the
top of your price range can put you in danger of not being able to afford it.
But buying a home that you can easily afford and in an area that will
appreciate beyond its current value can turn a bad debt into a hard asset.
Certainly you found this to be true during the last decade when we experienced this
last real estate boom and bust. People bought homes they couldn’t afford only
to be left holding the bag when the real estate boom collapsed.
It doesn’t seem like we’ve learned anything from that or this last economic
decline either. The average U.S. household is in debt somewhere between $7,128
and $15,279 on their credit cards, they owe on average $149,456 on their
mortgage still and have $32,140 in student loan debt. In total American
consumers are $11.32 trillion in debt; with $856.8 billion in credit card debt,
$7.92 trillion in mortgage debt and $1.038 trillion in student loan debt.
That’s an overall increase of 12.3 percent from last year.
D-E-B-T is the new four letter word in this country. It puts money that you
worked hard to earn into the pockets of others. In fact, the massive amount of
debt Americans have acquired over the last 30 years has put a large percentage
of American’s population into willing financial enslavement.
What consumers seem to forget is that when they buy something on credit they
have to not only pay that money back, but also a significant amount of
interest. In fact, the interest often ends up costing the borrower more than
the principal of the loan. Thus more and more of the borrower’s earnings go to
the lender, instead of his or her own pockets.
Think about your mortgage. Do you know how much interest you’re paying in
addition to the price of the home you bought? If you can’t find your last mortgage
statement from the bank go to a mortgage calculator online. It will tell you
how much additional you are paying in interest. One example I found was for
someone with a $200,000 mortgage who borrowed the money at 6 percent over 30
years. In addition to repaying the $200,000, this person will pay an additional
$231,676.38 in interest over the life of the loan. So
in 30 years, this person will have bought themselves a house as well as a house
for the bankers.
The financial enslavement doesn’t end there. Don’t believe me? Just look in
your wallet. Find any credit cards in there? If you carry a balance on any one
of your cards from month to month you have willingly enslaved yourself.
Say you owe what the average American owes on their credit card, in this
instance we’ll use the lower number $7,128. If you try to repay that amount it
will take you 40 years, providing you make no purchases on the card and make
only the minimum payment on time each month. During those 40 years you’ll pay
$19,247 in interest, altogether you will end up paying $26,375.
Have you begun to see the picture I’m painting for you? Debt will control your
life. It will enslave you, strip you of your freedoms, drain you of your wealth
and prevent you from ever getting rich.
Don’t become a slave to debt.
Right now is the best time to get yourself out of debt. Why? Right now your
money is sitting in the bank earning 0.8 percent at best. You’ll never get rich
earning those kinds of meager returns. Instead pay off your debts which are
costing you anywhere from 5-20 percent! Paying of debt will reduce your monthly
expenditures and give you more financial flexibility to live the life you’ve
always wanted to.
To your future and mine!
Mark Patricks
Comments are closed.