{"id":24460,"date":"2017-07-14T20:17:34","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T01:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=24460"},"modified":"2017-07-14T20:17:34","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T01:17:34","slug":"we-do-these-things-because-theyre-easy-our-all-consuming-dependence-on-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=24460","title":{"rendered":"We Do These Things Because They’re Easy: Our All-Consuming Dependence on Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Do These Things Because They’re Easy: Our All-Consuming Dependence on Debt<\/a><\/h3>\n
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A world in which “we do these things because they’re easy” has one end-state: collapse.<\/i><\/div>\n
On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave a famous speech announcing the national goal of going to the moon by the end of the decade.<\/b>\u00a0(JFK’s speech on going to the moon<\/a>.) In a memorable line, Kennedy said we would pursue the many elements of the space program\u00a0“not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”<\/i><\/div>\n
Our national philosophy now is “we do these things because they’re easy”– and relying on debt to pay today’s expenses is at the top of the list.<\/b>\u00a0What’s easier than tapping a line of credit to buy whatever you want or need? Nothing’s easier than borrowing money, especially at super-low rates of interest.<\/div>\n
We are now totally, completely dependent on expanding debt for the maintenance of our society and economy.<\/b>\u00a0Every sector of the economy–households, businesses and government–all borrow vast sums just to maintain the status quo for another year.<\/div>\n
Compare buying a new car with easy, low-interest credit and saving up to buy the car with cash.<\/b>\u00a0How easy is it to borrow $23,000 for a new $24,000 car? You go to the dealership, announce all you have to put down is a trade-in vehicle worth $1,000. The salesperson puts a mirror under your nose to make sure you’re alive, makes sure you haven’t just declared bankruptcy to stiff previous lenders, and if you pass those two tests, you qualify for a 1% rate auto loan. You sign some papers and drive off in your new car. Easy-peasy!<\/div>\n
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…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We Do These Things Because They’re Easy: Our All-Consuming Dependence on Debt A world in which “we do these things because they’re easy” has one end-state: collapse. On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave a famous speech announcing the national goal of going to the moon by the end of the decade.\u00a0(JFK’s speech […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127,195,587],"class_list":["post-24460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-charles-hugh-smith","tag-debt","tag-of-two-minds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24461,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24460\/revisions\/24461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}