Is Credit Limit “Heaven”?

Is Credit Limit “Heaven”?

 

I don’t watch much TV but the news interests me. Lately, there is a marketing campaign on the news, advertising an App for checking credit rating or score. In the commercial people in ordinary life discover that their credit limit is higher than they knew. Next, you see them spending, on vacations, new vehicles or apartment rental like billionaires. There is no mention of the payback time when they will work and suffer. It makes me sick to see people fooled this way. The ad doesn’t tell us how to get a better life, only to borrow and have a temporary sample of a good life.

I have seen some individuals, even governments, borrow to start businesses or even kick start a sluggish economy. I am in favor of borrowing if it will pay back later. Yet the motto of the late seventies, “Fly Now, Pay Later” which Chargex (Visa) used to advertise, offends my sensibility.

Most people, who are probably addicted to something, will agree that addictions are bad. There are substance addictions like alcohol, drug abuse, smoking and process addictions like sexual, shopping, eating, spending, gambling and I could probably write a whole page just listing the names. In my opinion, our overall worst addiction is to have instant gratification regardless of the consequence. It includes all the others. There is a good reason for the line in the Lord’s prayer that says “Lead us not into temptation.”

The best gifts that humans received from the Creator are birth and death. I woke up one time without remembering falling to sleep and cried. I was born and began my training on how to be human. As I learned, my body grew and so did my relationships and material possessions. I seem to have always known that it is all temporary which made it precious. If there was no death, I wouldn’t have enjoyed every stage in my life. In the end, I will go to sleep again without knowing where I will wake up. I already did have a near-death experience and it was not bad at all.

If you believe that we have only one life, as many people now do, you should plan to make it pleasant. It will not happen if you mortgage the future for an instant of pretending that you are rich. You must work hard and smart towards making enduring changes and resist the urge to pretend that you are rich and pay for it later.

When we are addicted we want something above all else. Often it’s clear to our minds that it is temporary and the mind will want more. The more we fight it the stronger is the pull towards it and we face the fear of losing whatever it is that gives us pleasure or relief. We need to be liked, or loved. In the case of addiction to consuming, food, goods or even services, we are fighting the knowledge that there will be an end. The addiction will demand more, and more is simply not available. More will kill the body that wants it. The next step is to deny what we know is true and reaffirm it by trying to convince others.

Our communities and families these days lack the closeness and intimate relationships which existed up to my generation. We try to mimic it by using new technology but it doesn’t. Starving for something, which is hard to identify, we feed our hunger with addiction to pleasure on credit as if there was no tomorrow. People will not survive if everyone cares only about the short-lived gains borrowing against the future without care.

Our aim should not be to fake being special for a little time but to make all of us enjoy life in a permanent and lasting way. We can do it using our creative power but we must be responsible. We are responsible to ourselves and to all future generations.

When a human spends all future earnings for something that will not last, he or she will be tempted to get more by taking what should belong to others. When someone obtains more than their own share, they will feel obliged to protect it by any means they can. Those who pay the price will keep working towards equality and eventually win.

There is no limit to how much we can spend or to how many things we could get if we had the means. Now when I am old and I have most of what I need, I feel like there is no need to obtain more. Perhaps I can replace some things but mostly I am happy with what I have. There is no way to have all the things that everyone else has. What about the younger people who don’t have what I do? Back I go in my mind to the times when I didn’t have a lot. The time when I arrived in a new country with the contents of one suitcase. Step by step I began accumulating things that I needed as much as my little pay for my work would provide.

Now I look at the young generation and see them much better off than I was and see them borrowing up to their credit limit to travel and have a good time. I know that they will have to go long periods of working without rewards to pay for what they borrowed and I am not feeling good about it. Some will find ways to increase their income but most will not. Real income didn’t increase in thirty years or more but prices did. It was paid by credit and credit is limited to what one can pay.

I see people waiting for retirement. Fewer people now have pensions and with strong objections to increasing taxes, pensions may not go up. What will happen?

 

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.