Paying the Piper

This blog is supposed to be a place for pondering spiritual/religious questions, issues, lessons, observations, and so on. It is not intended to be a political blog. I don’t even consider myself a political person. I tend to say I am more spiritual than religious. I don’t even think about calling myself political.

That being said, I see things going on in our country that I believe have spiritual/religious contexts as well as political contexts, and it is legitimate for me to comment on them from that viewpoint. I am talking about our nation’s debt. And the debts of many of our states as well. Contrary to what some might believe, I do not think it is a sin to be in debt. It certainly is not wise, however, to get into the position that we are in. The Christian Bible has a lot to say about money and money management, and the book called Proverbs has quite a bit to say about debt. One thing it says is that the borrower is the servant of the lender.

You see, our debt is coming due now, and the piper demands to be paid.

As individuals, we have spent probably five decades building up personal credit, borrowing money, not living within our means. Some of this debt is necessary if half a dozen expensive things (such as dental work and car repair and a child being sick) decide to happen at the same time. Some of our debt is simply a matter of convenience. But quite a lot of our debt has happened because we want something and we will have it whether we can afford it or not. And then something happens that we may not have control over and we’re plunged into a pit of deep…well, you know.

As individual householders, we know how it works. Income and outgo have to match. If our expenses go up we either go into debt or find more income and/or change some spending habits. We know that, as individuals, as households and families.

Whatever made us think government can do any differently? As a nation, we have been spending money we do not have. We have borrowed against the future, depending on the strength of our economy to support our recklessness.

Now we have a national budget deficit that scares us – it scares me, anyway – and we’re starting to criticize the President for it. I have news for all of us. So far he hasn’t done much to reduce the deficit, but he didn’t invent it. We have been doing this to ourselves for some 50 years. Presidents and legislators from both parties have been collectively responsible for it. And we as voters have allowed it.

Guess what! The future has arrived! We have to start paying our debt down before we capsize under its weight.

Guess what! The longer we put it off, the harder and more difficult our debt will be to deal with.

And guess what! Blaming others will not help! We have all done it to ourselves, and we will all have to suffer the consequences of our folly. Nobody likes to think of it. That includes me. I have little, and I don’t like the thought of losing even a tad of it.

Recently, we voted a whole bunch of people into office because they said they would cut spending and balance the budget without raising taxes. Of course we want a balanced budget, right?

Sure we do. Until we hear that the budget balancers are going to cut funds for things we want. Then we squeal. “Cut someone else’s thing,” we protest, “and leave mine alone.” Sorry, friends, it doesn’t work like that. Our situation is serious, and everyone will have to feel the pain in order to fix it.

Do we have the courage to make our politicians do what is necessary? Do we understand that the longer we wait, the harder and more painful it will be to fix this situation? Can we accept the teaching in our Bible about living within our means?

Do we?

Can we?

Doggone it, we had better! Do we really want to be the servant to our lenders? Of course not. So let’s buckle down and get to work!