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