I'm in mourning.
I'm in mourning, because I see a
precarious house of cards about to topple on so many Canadians and I
cannot look away. Instead of a regular playing deck, on each card is
an image of a manufactured need – a desire made in China, priced in
Canada and the proceeds in the pockets of some wealthy offshore
investor. We are pressured to believe that an overpriced cardboard
home – condo or mcmansion, that jacket – Canada Goose, that
newest techno-gadget – Ipad – that all of these will make us
happy, show our worth, demonstrate our success.
On each card face are the manufactured
ideas of happiness and success that block the light instead of
letting us see each image for what it is – an image. Not only are
we blind to the external forces that control our most basest desires,
we are also blind to the fragile foundations on which we stand. This
house is not built upon the rock, but built upon slavery – what
most call debt.
Our average personal debt-load is
higher than the United States even as we ironically celebrate our
supposedly stable economy in a moment of misguided Schadenfreude.
We are not more free than the most free nation on earth; we are
buried up to our necks with our eyes closed to the mass of red ants,
who hurry to eat us alive. We citizens as well as our government have
misplaced our sense of reason in place of foolish irrationality. In
such a flurry of desire, we spent an average of $800 dollars per
person on gifts at Christmas in 2010 and probably just as much this
year. What else could explain lowering the down payment amount needed
to buy a new home, as this conservative federal government has so
kindly done.
You
may be asking why I say I am in mourning. The house still stands.
Yet, it is not as secure as it once was – it's crumbling at the
edges, and I have seen it in my family. Both sides have been touched
by a sudden loss of income during this recession from which they have
not been able to recover. While both their situations sadden me, one
does not worry and anger me like the other.
One
side has cut back on spending and has managed to replace the lost
income to a certain extent. They have savings which they have only
minimally cut into and have prepared for their retirement. They own a
home, which they have spent over 15 years paying off and are living
comfortably, despite the cut in income.
The
other side of the family came into some money quickly, felt rich,
proceeded to buy a new home, fill it with stuff and then lost that
income. So far – a little foolish, but not so bad. Instead of,
however, cutting their losses and trying to salvage what they could
for the future, they continued to rack up credit card debt with the
hopes that lightening would strike twice in a dry recession. Stuck
with their heads in the sand, they lived pretty much as they had
lived before. Their health started to deteriorate under the repressed
stress, but they still believed they would be able to save it all.
Finally, with credit card debt well into the six figures, they began
to try and sell their house, but they couldn't. No one was interested
in buying the oversized home they had lovingly created for
themselves. When they did sell it, they received barely enough to pay
off the house debt, but not enough to save them from bankruptcy. This
fall from comfort into welfare has not restored their reason. They
still continue to spend beyond their means, leaving us to pick up the
tab.
This
morning I woke early, sick and pregnant, thinking of the latest
example of their money mismanagement. I couldn't sleep, knowing how
easily this story could become the story of so many others, who live
in this precarious house of manufactured dreams. We are without
reason not only at this time of year, but all year round, and this
foolish enslavement needs to stop.
I lay
there awake and thought over and over again – I am in mourning. I
am in mourning for our loss of reason, I am in mourning for we live
as beasts of burden.
