PART TWO
Where has common sense gone?
After watching the news, sometimes I feel we are all on a sinking ship, and in order to stay afloat the passengers must rid the ship of excess weight. Instead of working for the collective good of everyone, the passengers begin to argue over what to throw overboard. Everyone wants to keep all of their stuff, and screams at the others to throw their things into the water...while the ship, with everyone on board, slowly sinks!
For far too long we have lived under the delusion that this is the United States of America and we simply cannot fail...that there is no problem too big for us...that we can spend ourselves out of any situation.
We are like a middle-aged married couple, facing a fork in the road. This couple has year after year, spent more than they have made. They bought the bigger house, took expensive vacations, maxed out their credit cards...and now have come to the realization that it takes a huge part of their monthly income just to pay the interest on the charge cards.
The stress level in the home is beginning to become unbearable and there is much finger pointing over who is at fault. As the blame-game escalates, and the anger increases, both the husband and the wife continue to buy more things. They think by doing so, it somehow will bring them back to a place in their marriage when they still could afford to buy nice things.
As friends of this couple...as outsiders, we view their situation, and think things are pretty simple really...you have to either make more money, or spend less...or a combination of both. What everyone can agree upon, the sense of entitlement must go!
In order for the marriage to survive, the couple must reevaluate everything. They must determine what is a "want" and what is a "need". They must come to the conclusion that their love for each other is more important that the stuff they thought they deserved.
It will not work, if the wife is willing to sacrifice, but the husband still wants to head to the country club everyone weekend...his life unchanged. The sacrifice must be shared.
The longer they delay before changing their ways, the worse the problem gets. Maybe one, or both need to get a part time job to bring in a little extra money. The plans for that vacation to Europe may need to be scrapped. Perhaps the new clothes in the closet, with the tags still on them, should be returned to the store to get them off the charge card.
I realize this is an oversimplification of what is wrong with our country. Our problems are complex. There are a lot of us, and therefore, there are many opinions to be considered.
However, some days, I think we are like the couple in my example...instead of sitting down, looking at our stack of bills, and trying to figure out a plan...we head to the mall to buy a new flat screen...because we deserve it!
To be continued...
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