This was published October 4, 2008:
It's called: A Story of Dire Consequences (makes you think)
"Friday, October 3, 2008, I was watching Larry King Live. There were 4 guests and one of the guests wanted to blame the Nation's economic woes on a small group of homeowners. It troubled me so much that I couldn't sleep. In the morning, I put my thoughts on paper. [I trust you'll get the lesson/s and complex analogy of the first story].
It's called: A Story of Dire Consequences (makes you think)
"Friday, October 3, 2008, I was watching Larry King Live. There were 4 guests and one of the guests wanted to blame the Nation's economic woes on a small group of homeowners. It troubled me so much that I couldn't sleep. In the morning, I put my thoughts on paper. [I trust you'll get the lesson/s and complex analogy of the first story].
I’m going to tell you a story about two parents who had many children. The parents were role models for those children. Unfortunately, they were bad role models. They worked and brought in money; however, they believed in a philosophy of borrowing and spending and fighting with their neighbors many of whom had lent them money or allowed them to use their land because there was much needed water on it.
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They passed that philosophy on to their children. This philosophy of borrowing and spending and fighting with their neighbors went on for years until the spending and borrowing and fighting got so out of hand that they found themselves in a pile of mess and they began pointing their fingers at their children and their neighbors, etc for the predicament they were in instead of trying to really fix their problems. On top of that, they hadn’t saved enough money and the money became scarce.
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The story is even more complicated because the children of those parents had children and then those children had children, and on and on. They all had been taught the same thing and they all eventually found themselves in the same predicament as their parents.
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There were many side players in this scenario. These players were called merchants, wolves and snakes. They helped the parents spend money and borrow money. There also was another set of players called watchers.
Some merchants sold much needed supplies/products, but many others sold junk and weapons and trinkets (some of which were called assets). The wolves helped the parents borrow money to buy junk and trinkets, and the snakes sold something called insurance to help protect the parent’s junk and trinkets.
The watchers were supposed to be reporting to the parents and children on all these player’s activities, but unfortunately they were compromised by their relationship with the merchants, wolves and snakes.
If that wasn’t bad enough, many of these merchants, wolves and snakes were even more depraved. The depraved merchants sold tainted and defective supplies/products, as well as weapons that were indiscrimately placed and sold, to indiscrimately kill. The depraved wolves began to charge exorbitant amounts of interest to borrow money, developed complicated schemes to enrich themselves and schemes to get the parents and children trapped in a cycle of debt; sometimes they simply refused to let the parents and children borrow unless they were partners in their schemes.
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The story is even more complicated because the children of those parents had children and then those children had children, and on and on. They all had been taught the same thing and they all eventually found themselves in the same predicament as their parents.
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There were many side players in this scenario. These players were called merchants, wolves and snakes. They helped the parents spend money and borrow money. There also was another set of players called watchers.
Some merchants sold much needed supplies/products, but many others sold junk and weapons and trinkets (some of which were called assets). The wolves helped the parents borrow money to buy junk and trinkets, and the snakes sold something called insurance to help protect the parent’s junk and trinkets.
The watchers were supposed to be reporting to the parents and children on all these player’s activities, but unfortunately they were compromised by their relationship with the merchants, wolves and snakes.
If that wasn’t bad enough, many of these merchants, wolves and snakes were even more depraved. The depraved merchants sold tainted and defective supplies/products, as well as weapons that were indiscrimately placed and sold, to indiscrimately kill. The depraved wolves began to charge exorbitant amounts of interest to borrow money, developed complicated schemes to enrich themselves and schemes to get the parents and children trapped in a cycle of debt; sometimes they simply refused to let the parents and children borrow unless they were partners in their schemes.
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The depraved snakes sold insurance that was unnecessary or too expensive or was so complicated that no one understood the stuff but the depraved snakes; however, they were happy because they made a fortune. The parents and children that were sold that crap were either underinsured when they needed the insurance money or they had paid so much for it that they hadn’t been able to save much.
Eventually, the entire family structure started to collapse.
Now, this story can be applied to the legislative and executive branches of government (parents), the children (states, citizens), the money (earned income, taxes, the Federal Reserve, etc.), the neighbors (other states and other countries), merchants (retailers, manufacturer’s, traders, insurance companies [who sell insurance products], etc.), wolves (banks, mortgage brokers [agents of wolves], the Federal Reserve, other states, other countries), snakes (insurance companies/corporations), watchers (bank regulators, the SEC, the FDA, the news media) and I’ll throw in a different group of watchers, called the protectors (the judiciary).
You can add other players, agents of players, substitute others for parents or change roles. The situation is still dire.
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Eventually, the entire family structure started to collapse.
Now, this story can be applied to the legislative and executive branches of government (parents), the children (states, citizens), the money (earned income, taxes, the Federal Reserve, etc.), the neighbors (other states and other countries), merchants (retailers, manufacturer’s, traders, insurance companies [who sell insurance products], etc.), wolves (banks, mortgage brokers [agents of wolves], the Federal Reserve, other states, other countries), snakes (insurance companies/corporations), watchers (bank regulators, the SEC, the FDA, the news media) and I’ll throw in a different group of watchers, called the protectors (the judiciary).
You can add other players, agents of players, substitute others for parents or change roles. The situation is still dire.
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I’m going to tell you one more story. I knew a woman who had worked all her life for a government agency, she got married (to a man who had a good job) and they had 2 children (a daughter and a son). She and her husband were very lucky and inherited her mother’s home. They acquired assets.
I’m going to tell you one more story. I knew a woman who had worked all her life for a government agency, she got married (to a man who had a good job) and they had 2 children (a daughter and a son). She and her husband were very lucky and inherited her mother’s home. They acquired assets.
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The neighborhood was nice and her neighbors (except for a few minor encounters) got along well. Her children grew up and one had children, the other was mentally ill.
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A depraved snake came to her door one day and sold her a little insurance with a very high premium (as much as she and her husband could afford). She was even told that the very expensive insurance product would provide savings.
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One day her husband died and the family income was cut almost in half. The very expensive insurance product (on her husband) was only enough to pay for a modest funeral and some medical bills; it provided no savings. Food had become very expensive as had utilities, gas (for the car), property taxes, etc. The little savings she had accumulated dwindled.
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To make matters worse, her daughter lost her job (it was outsourced) and the daughter’s son needed a kidney transplant. The daughter who had lost her job had no health insurance. They moved in with the woman (Mom).
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To make matters worse, her daughter lost her job (it was outsourced) and the daughter’s son needed a kidney transplant. The daughter who had lost her job had no health insurance. They moved in with the woman (Mom).
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The house needed repairs. She had to sell off some of her assets. It was hard to “make ends meet”. A wolf came to the woman’s door and let her borrow money on the house (a mortgage). Other wolves mailed her credit cards. She and her husband had always paid their bills on time.
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She continued to pay her bills on time even with her husband gone. She eventually retired from the government agency with a pension. Depraved wolves now came to her door and convinced her to refinance her house to pay off most of her credit card debt at a much higher rate of interest.
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She was now nearing 70 years of age. One day she mailed a credit card payment late by mistake and her interest rate more than doubled. She was now caught up in a cycle of debt. She worried, she wanted to sell the house, but house market values were down and besides, she had a son with a mental illness and a grandchild that was ill. She fell behind in her mortgage payments.
I'll let you finish the story." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll let you finish the story." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[If you think this story is simply about spending and borrowing, banks and insurance companies, then you really haven't understood the deeper and more complex story]
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Update 5/12/2010
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2 comments:
Terrific Story!
Terrific Story!
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