It may have always been this way, but I have a feeling that it’s getting worse. Too many people today are opting for easy living. Getting something now is easier than waiting until then. Gratifying yourself now is easier than delaying until later. Spending money that you don’t have is easier than waiting until you can earn the money to pay for it. Credit is easier than debit. Fun is easier than work.
So, I asked myself the question after I saw a report that the average American is $4,717 in credit card debt. (www.time/money.com) Why? Granted, much of it is because of emergency needs. If the kids need clothes and you don’t have the money, you charge it. If the electric or water bill has to be paid or else they’ll shut off your service, you put it on the card. But that’s not the whole story. Designer jeans, Oakley sunglasses, backyard pools, gas grills, HDTV’s and lots of other gadgets go the plastic route as well.
But, there’s more. The average household is $130,922 in debt! (www.nerdwallet.com) This includes home mortgages, student loans, automobiles, boats, motorcycles, cruise vacations, furniture, appliances and all the other big ticket items. If we account for many of these debtors who are living within their means, there are still many others who have no business getting into so much debt. Why do they do it? Easy livin’, man! Their friends from high school need to think that they are doing as well as everyone else. They fall prey to the commercials they see on television and decide that they are going to live the good life too. Their itch is screaming to be scratched, and they’re just not going to wait around until it happens.
What are the thought processes that lead to these kinds of decision? What causes the math that says “No way” turn into impracticable decisions that say, “I don’t care. I’m going to do it!”? Good question. The answer is not “the economy, stupid.” The answer is economics! Economics is not a physical science. It’s science based on human behavior. And, anything based on human behavior is unpredictable, impulsive, volatile, irrational, outrageous, and yes, stupid! It’s sooner rather than later, it’s here and now rather than there and then, it’s dessert first before the important stuff. It’s me first, dopamine, testosterone, bi-polarism, pride, vanity, greed, lust, covetousness, competitiveness and all the other human foibles and sins.
The good life turns into a hard life, however, and it happens sooner than the poor dupes who went that way expected. Spending money you don’t have creates the illusion that you are rich, but the reality of creditors and repossession agents will burst that bubble. Drinking drowns your troubles, but the undercurrent pulls you in. Overdosing on drugs sends you into laa-laa land with few U-turn signs. Binge eating is a way out of your depression, but obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other life-threatening conditions end up making you miserable. Destructive behavior lets you vent, but your destroy your relationships along with yourself.
It is only when one establishes proper goals in life and then carefully, with discipline, sets out to reach those goals that the dream can be attained. If easy living leads to a hard life, then it only makes sense that hard living leads to an easy life. I’ve never known many people who got everything they wanted without working for it that didn’t end up making a mess out of their lives. When you respect the process, the process will be good to you. When you circumvent the process, the process will even the score.
Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man. Proverbs 6:6-11 (NKJV)