The Economy by Cal Thomas

The Economy by Cal Thomas

A few weeks ago, The Washington Post carried a story that is a metaphor for
what
ails us. It was about a Maryland couple whose mortgage lender took back what
remained of a $95,000 home equity line of credit. The lender explained that
the couple's home had fallen in value and it did not want to shoulder the
risk that they might owe more than the house was worth. The couple was using
the equity line to pay preschool tuition for their twins.

A good financial adviser might have helped them avoid this predicament, but
we are immediately led to the supposedly bottomless well of the federal
government. Politicians, especially some of our newly elected leaders,
pledge to shoulder the responsibility of making sure that people whose
mortgages are higher than they can reasonably afford and whose debts are
larger than they should be get bailed out by the rest of us who made right
financial decisions and practice living within our means. I know, this
sounds cold, but only to those who live this way.

Lenders across the country are pulling the plug on equity lines and
tightening credit after a lending spree to people for whom the housing
market was their pot of gold.

Much of this economic "pain" is self-inflicted. Rather than purchasing homes
they could not afford - or putting too much down, making them cash poor -

Some of the lust for bigger and better is human nature, but a lot is the
result of consumerism. The Timex watch is no longer enough. We now must have
a Rolex, though both accurately tell time. The adequate low-end automobile
is insufficient. We must trade up to a luxury car with numbers and letters
on the rear that mean nothing, but convey "status." And the house we are
living in, which would have been more than adequate for our parents and
certainly our grandparents, must be upgraded to larger digs in order to
impress, if not growing families, than enlarged egos.

When none of this brings the promised happiness and fulfillment, we turn to
drink, or pills, or counselors, or divorce court and seek significance in
new things and relationships on what quickly becomes a personal boulevard of
broken dreams.

We can't say we haven't been warned about this endless pursuit of stuff. The
writer of Ecclesiastes wrote, "Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. As goods increase,
so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except
to feast his eyes on them?" (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11)

When wants and needs are confused, desires become entitlements and
politicians are afraid to tell people what they need to hear. Instead they
tell them what they want to hear. Anger and envy result, as well as
frustration with a political system that was not designed to indulge its
citizens in their lusts or subsidize their greed.

Who will tell us that unending and expanding prosperity with home values
constantly rising and a citizenry always able to afford them is a fantasy
that is bound to end in heartache for those who buy into it?

The economy isn't bad. We are bad for believing that more is better and the
most is best. We have an abundance of things, but a deficit of character.
The economy is a false god, a golden calf. When this false god doesn't
deliver, we complain to politicians who are happy to accept our faith in
them to give us what we want.