How Personal Debt Contributed to Costing us our Rights

Photo by PiggyBank on Unsplash

At least two generations of Canadians have been convinced by banks, credit card companies and observing the spending habits of their more well off parents, that it isn't normal to delay gratification. So many have bought into the whole "buy now pay later" scheme. These reckless spending behaviors have resulted in so many Canadians living in terrible financial situations and cost them their freedoms. Now this isn’t to to shame people, everyone has their reasons for how these use their capital. For many accruing some debt is a normal part of life. I grew up thinking that this was how it was going to be. There was no Dave Ramsay, “Till debt do us part” or any resources that I could access at the touch of a smart screen I had to mostly rely on witnessing others behavior around me and it was generally good times for most Canadians. The Government banking structure and credit companies exploited that.

The people who sell you credit use behavioral science, algorithms and social peer pressure to tap into our deepest desires to get us to part with our hard earned capital and enter into contracts that cost us far more then just that capital. Unchecked consumerism and psychological warfare on our minds helped sell us Lines of Credit, Credit Cards, low interest loans and more financial schemes. Many people watched the generation before them be able to utilize their purchasing power for anything they wanted and just pay it off later but many didn’t pay it off later. The debt accrued more and more and then it would need to be rolled into lines of credit and into refinancing options.

I am in no way against spending money and supporting the economy but an economy that is propped up on high consumer and household debt is a false economy. Unfortunately many Canadians fell into this trap, we assumed that our buying power would stay consistent, inflation rates wouldn’t rise too high and that debt was a good thing reflected in a high “Credit Score”. As the Dead Kennedy's said, "Give me convenience or give me death". We got whatever we wanted with the belief that we'd simply just pay it off later. Why should we be denied the objects and lifestyle we want? This worked for a little while and people could sustain higher debt loads with their pay cheques but time never stops advancing and interest accrues. You see while there are stress tests at the Banks to ensure that people can't take out too much debt that they'd never be able to pay off, the pressure to sell products along with the idea that you need a good credit score to get more credit put so many people on a path of destruction. The banking system itself has become less about ensuring financial stability and more with selling products. Selling a product creates a commission, a financial incentive, that is built on top of the person’s wage. It has become less about financial management and more about additional consumerism within the banking system. This model is unsustainable because the average person only has so many products that can leveraged with their capital but the pressure to sell products remains high.

We live in a highly consumer based society that is not longer about selling you the products that you need but instead selling you a brand or a compliment to your identity. What type cutlery defines me as a man? What will that stranger on the corner think of your car for the two minutes they see it? Why go to a community gym when you can bring the gym home to you? Why get a Mr. Coffee machine when you can buy a huge machine with fancy settings and buttons? Get this expensive purse or else people might thing your poor! I belong to (insert identity group here) so I must purchase this item that showcases it to the world around me. These companies cash in on our cultural capital and how we engage socially with the world around us.

There's nothing wrong with purchasing things that you like but it's when so many people decided that they needed to have it now rather then when they could buy it outright. As the economy got worse by terrible Government and Corporate decision making and taxes continue to increase to pay for more and more services, many Canadians have suddenly realized that they not only can't afford anything but they probably won't be able to pay back what they owe. The Government solution here has been to create wealth re-distribution schemes that give certain Canadians pennies back on what they’ve spent in taxation and encourage them to continue to spend more.

Our own Prime Minister encouraged Canadians to leverage the power of their credit cards to spur the economy by getting into debt to rebuild aging home infrastructure to sell later for profit. For non-Canadians, Canada’s economy is part of a dangerous unprecedented experiment to leverage almost our entire economy on our housing market. The buying and selling of limited housing with our Government investing in the Mortgage market is pretty much the only thing stopping us from total collapse.

Through rampant spending, the trap has been sprung; now the workplace and the Government own these people. The borrower is slave to the lender. The only people who have free speech are people with nothing that can be taken, people who are rich and people that are financially secured.

How many people attend company struggle sessions or fail to challenge Corporate and Government policy that they disagree with on a fundamental level? I don't think many of them are sheep because a sheep isn’t generally aware of the danger in their midst before its too late. Many of these people are well aware of the wolves in their midst, I instead think they are slaves to the lenders and the apparatuses that enabled their predation. Living in constant agonizing fear of having everything they worked so hard for stripped away from them yet have a deep internal conflict about having to suppress their own values. The lenders told them to keep what lifestyle they have but because of their debts they would need to comply with the lenders requirements. There was a time when you would go to work and you could have your beliefs outside of the workplace without fear of retaliation from said workplace. Your work place wouldn't push a company culture that you would be expected to adopt in your personal time. This inorganic push that was allowed to go through with little resistance is a direct result of debt. How many people would say what they believe, whole heartedly with their full chest if they knew that financial repercussions wasn’t holding them back. There would be an intense change in company culture if the company couldn’t push the individual around. Now many people are working jobs they barely recognize from all the inorganic push from woke company culture but keep their heads down, keep their mouths shut (besides maybe some muted whispers around the water cooler) and hope they can make ends meet with their increasingly dwindling cash flow. They hope one day it’ll be naturally reversed, it won’t. The only ways they can get out of the trap is bankruptcy which is a life altering decision that will crush them for years or an incredible drastic change in spending habits that often fail because they're caught in a loop of perceived needs and wants.

Other factors have been the Governments unprecedented use of emergency powers to cease Canadian bank accounts with laws designed for countering terrorism. Using an illegally obtained list through hacking the Government froze Canadian bank accounts who donated to the “Freedom Convoy”. These people couldn’t pay bills, receive or send cash. Although the Courts ruled its use was illegal, as usual in Canada, no-one was ever held accountable and the Government denies any wrongdoing. In Canada your financial freedom relies on your compliance with Government mandates and initiatives. You are allowed to protest and complain as long as it doesn’t amount to any real threat to the powers that be. The Government knows that we’re up to our eyeballs in debt and that’s fine for them because it means we can be more easily controlled.

This insidious trap that we’ve put ourselves into is largely our own faults. There is some blame on the corporations, the Government and the education system but ultimately we choose where our capital goes. There is some blame that can be leveraged on the lack of financial literacy training and skills from the education system, lack of literacy skills translated from broken family units to their children and corporations and Government trying to squeeze every drop of your money without respecting the labor you put in to get that money. There is acknowledgement for all those factors yet you have the power ultimately. What you spend your money on still remains within your control. The internet for all its faults has opened up all the tools and knowledge one needs to learn effectively how to get themselves out of debt. There are amazing resources available at the click of a button. However none of it is easy and anyone trying to sell you an easy way out of debt is scamming you. Getting out of debt, especially old debt requires sacrifice, for all the easy times someone had getting the items they’ll have to pay it back double in hard times. People may need to get extra jobs, sell things, pitch for promotions and other methods but the work must be done. Extras must be sacrificed, only discipline and time will get people out of the trap.

So while we can certainly pit much blame on bad Public and Corporate decision making, individual responsibility must remain front and center. The ultimate way for people to regain their freedoms is to escape the debt trap for their sake, their children's sake and ultimately for their freedom.

Photo by Will Porada on Unsplash

Consider the emergency situation acronym STOP

S-STOP Physically stop everything else you are doing. (No distractions. You may be in an emergency situation)

T- THINK Am I in the situation? How did I get into this situation? (really look at your finances, no shame, no holding back, no lying to yourself, no lying to your partner)

O- OBSERVE What resources do I have access to or how do I get access to them (Take inventory of what you do have, learn about how to get out of debt)

P- PLAN Come up with a realistic plan to tackle this (There’s many programs, I recommend Dave Ramsay’s 7 Step Program)

I myself am currently working my way through the Ramsay 7 Step Program. It isn’t easy and requires me to undo a lot of programming I’ve received since I was a kid about debt and examine my consumerism habits. Yet it is essential not only for financial freedom but for ensuring my freedoms cannot be limited by a corporation or government entity by insulating myself from financial hardship.

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