Tuesday's Mental Musings

After reading this article in the Sunday edition of the New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/us/03foodstamps.html?hp - I couldn't help but wonder how one of the richest land and resource nations in the world has come to this. I know the many replies that fly in response to this question but it just seems those political answers mask and separates us from our individual responsibility in it all.


Everything in America is fast and furious and filled with the promise of immediate gratification. We are being brainwashed into believing that we can live a life style possibly not meant to be ours. We are no longer taught the process of investment and saving towards our financial goals. Instead we are given crazy amounts of credit and capital at interest rates that undo our intent and leave most of us not owning our own lives. We live on credit which allows us to distance ourselves from our truth financial worth and more importantly true earning value. Sky high promises of wealth and luxury, relative to our chosen life styles, are reinforced by a media driven society telling us what is right and desirable to live a good life and in the end when the party is over and the lights come on we can no longer return to our "normal" lives because none of us have a foundation to rest on. For many of us everything is lost not because we dared to dream but because we didn't set the foundation of that dream based on our own value and abilities, things that can increase with time and patience.

We can argue that the accumulation of wealth and power is the “American Dream” but it would seem that the "American Dream" we are being encouraged to pursue is no longer the post WW dreams of investing in bonds, government row houses, stocks and savings programs for college that promise a slow and steady return. Instead it is a "get rich quick" promise that involves the crap shoots of fast and high returns and the bells and whistles announcing both our wins and losses. Truth be told there are always going to be those of us that are poor and those of us that are wealthy and those of us that float in the middle. There will always be people who can't seem to get a break or those who can't seem to see how blessed they truly are but the thing about America is that any one of us could change our circumstance if we decided to. We have this choice unless the establishment of an inevitable class system is a natural occurance in a country aging by the minute…..