Let’s face it: we’re in a mess.
All economies—locally, nationally and globally are struggling to right themselves while being bombarded continually by wave after wave of disasters. No one can escape. We’re somewhat all to blame. What do we do? Our first maneuver is to propel ourselves mentally out of the pit of negativism and focus on the solution.
My thoughts took me back to my childhood training and a couple of words from my first teacher – my father. He began life as a tough little guy growing up in east Texas. To escape racial persecution and find a way of earning a living, he joined the army at age seventeen, serving in the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper.
Later as a means of freeing himself from destructive personal habits like smoking, drinking, gambling, cursing and violence, he became a dedicated member of a demanding religious community. By the time I was five years old, he had emerged as a good, kind, loving but super strict dad, determined to teach the best principles to his family – “so help me God!” Two of my father’s favorite words and principles surface whenever I’m tangled up in messy stuff.
First Word: Bonehead.
The literal definition refers to a stupid person, but in our home, we were not allowed to demean others by using derogatory terms. “Bonehead” was always a “move”, an action or a behavior—and never a person! We understood that “all had sinned”. Both parents and children were capable of bonehead moves, and so all had a personal responsibility to identify, acknowledge and correct these as soon as a problem surfaced.
Helping younger siblings work through their little mistakes was sometimes quite fun – even hilarious – and created many of our favorite family memories. We learned to accept mistakes as natural and use them as instruments in the learning process. However, woven into the humorous stories was a clear message about personal ownership of mistakes. But my father’s bonehead moves became the greatest examples for me of adult accountability. Whenever he owned up to mistakes, I took notes and learned.
Owning the Mistakes
Likewise, I want to take note and learn from the mistakes that have created the current economic problems. As a citizen of the world, I have a responsibility to assess and address some of the moves that brought us here. I have identified these four: (1) An educational system that fails to teach the basics of financial literacy. (2) A political system that fails to balance the national budget. (3) A financial system in which banks loan money they don’t have. (Quantitative Easing.) (4) A Federal Reserve System that places no cap on digitally created funds flooding into the economy. (5) A populace of employees who rely on employers and the government to meet personal, financial needs for a lifetime. All bonehead moves!
Second Word: Trooper.
My father’s highest praise was “trooper”. With this one word he summarized my identity, and I grew into this identity as an adult. My personal, working definition of this word is: a solution-oriented, human action figure on a search and destroy mission to save the day. A real “trooper” will seek out and address a problem with confidence and courage.
Whenever our systems fail us, we as individuals must take on the role of the real trooper. One of my favorite mentors and teachers explains the task as follows: “Every system will eventually force the individual to serve it. Our job is to reform systems and create realms (communities and cultures) that serve us.” Our superpower is individual initiative and decisive action that can overrule and override bad decision of the systems that govern the land. Certain specific and intentional moves on our part can protect our families and potentially even protect the world from bad systems.
Here are some specific individual actions to guide us.
- To address the failure of the educational system, we can make financial literacy a priority for ourselves and our families and become rigorously invested in learning.
- As a contrast to the over-spending practices of our government and financial institutions, we can bring our own, personal spending, saving and investment practices into alignment with sound financial principles.
- As the Federal Reserve banks devalue our dollars through unlimited production, we can acquire assets that cannot be devalued: gold, silver, precious metals, and de-centralized, digital currencies (like Bitcoin) which place a firm cap on the number of coins in circulation that can never be increased.
- Finally, we can augment the job market by creating global businesses and ventures that offer innovative solutions to a growing number of economic problems and resource shortages facing us today.
These suggestions are food for thought, not to be considered financial advice, and certainly require more discussion to create workable plans. They are merely the seeds of solution, helping us understand that the same systems that created our problems will not solve them for us.
Wake Up Call
In 2008 the world was given a wakeup call as the biggest financial crash in human history was narrowly averted. Ironically, the decisions that halted the crash included a massive bailout of the same financial institutions that nearly caused the crash! Bonehead moves abound and are applauded by those who don’t understand what’s really going on. As a society, we keep attempting to move forward with our minds in reverse!
Informed individuals taking appropriate action will lift a giant burden off the shoulders of the world. Millions are taking a new interest in exploring real money, sound practices and innovative business solutions. In recent weeks I have connected with live and online communities, cultures and practices that are helping us create a wholesome, financial world. They are beckoning to us to join. The real troopers are beginning to see and understand how the new economy works. We have been given time to position ourselves for great prosperity, provided we get educated, get in community and take action. We are becoming the solution.
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