Saving Our Children From Crushing Debt

My children are seven and nine years old, and it’s heartbreaking to see how our society is already grooming them to take on crushing debt.

Everything from public schools to newspapers to television programs provides the wrong message. We tell our young people to study, start a career, and then work to retirement age. Children are assured that they’ll easily be able to pay off all their obligations by the time they’re 65 years old.

“Sign here, oh is it too much? Don’t worry, just have your parents co-sign.”

It all seems like a great, celebratory moment, until the ink dries and you slowly begin to understand that you’ve just handed over the sum total of all your future labors to the bank. Debt shouldn’t be counted in money, it should be counted in freedom.

How much freedom does a house, or a car, or a college education cost you?

“Thanks young person. Now get to work!”

We tell children to select a career and plan for retirement, but that’s the wrong message. Instead, we should encourage children to aspire to financial freedom.

Financial freedom! Doesn’t that sound better than working until you’re too old to enjoy the moment when your debt is finally cleared?

Right now you may be wondering why you’ve never heard that term before. Doesn’t it seem like your economics teacher should have at least mentioned financial freedom once in passing? Financial freedom is the gold medal! Why does our educational system block all discussion about anything better than a 78th place finish? Isn’t it better to tell people it's possible to reach a point where they never have to work again?

The secret to financial freedom is staying out of debt. But when you’re a pawn of a debt based system, you don’t have access to a complete picture.

There is one fundamental difference between rich people and poor people. Rich people collect interest, and poor people pay it. That’s it. It's easy for powerful people to collect revenue on debt, so they have constructed a system to make sure everyone falls into it.

“Daddy, where will I go to college?”

“Not in the United States.”

“But all my friends...”

“Forget about your friends. They’ll all end up $80,000 in debt. US higher education has priced itself out of the market. You can get the same degree abroad for a fraction of the cost.”

Foreign degrees are used in the US marketplace all the time. The degree is accredited by an agency for a small fee, usually around $300. You see this happen a lot in the health care industry where workers are employed on an H-1B visa. There is always a shortage of doctors in the US because the health care industry limits the number of Americans who are allowed to receive an education in the field. Hospitals prefer to employ H-1B visa holders who do not have the same rights or negotiating power of US citizens.

This accepted practice means that many capable American students are denied the opportunity to study and earn a job in a very lucrative field. For some reason, the country isn’t furious about this.

You’d be surprised how easy it is to study abroad. All it takes is fluency in a foreign language.

Sadly, the US educational system hasn’t embraced a competent approach to teaching foreign language. Many school districts don’t even offer another language until late in high school, even though most studies suggest younger students are better equipped for language acquisition. It’s almost as if the system is set up intentionally to deny children future opportunities to study at a considerable savings to them.

In many parts of the United States, when you speak in a foreign language you’re met with open hostility. People get angry, it’s like they’re all inadvertent agents is a system designed to make you beholden to a financial master. They attack you like white blood cells attack a foreign body.

The debt system does not end with education. Health care is also corrupt.

Imagine if you have a diligent son who works hard, doesn’t waste money, and lives a frugal lifestyle to get ahead. He saves up fifty grand, then, on vacation, he breaks his arm while out of his coverage area, and incurs a three hundred thousand dollar bill. Doesn’t seem fair does it? The sad part is, this isn’t an improbable scenario.

Even with insurance, most people who get cancer lose everything they own to medical bills. Medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcy in our nation.

When you go abroad, you’ll find that medications are available for pennies on the dollar, and quality health insurance is either free or can be purchased for a couple hundred dollars a year. In the US, billion of dollars of taxpayer money is given to subsidize the development of vaccines and medications, and then the taxpayers have to pay again to actually receive these treatments. If you complain that we’ve already paid, politicians label you a socialist.

How does it feel to know that even if you stay out of debt, even if you do everything right, the health care industry is likely to get the sum total of your life’s work anyway? We all get sick in the end, they know it, and they’re content to wait.

The worst part about all of this, is that it’s getting to the point where the only prudent thing you can do is to plan to leave the United States at some point in your life. The prices in this country simply don’t make sense. You can’t retire here, because as you get older, your insurance costs become prohibitive. Scheduling trips to foreign nations for medical procedures has already become a common practice.

It’s insanity.

There is a powerful siphon in our society that ensures all of your money will end up in the hands of the rich and powerful even before you earn it. Today, the bottom 40% of our nation holds only 0.2% of the nation’s total wealth. Every year, a greater percentage of the new wealth created goes to the richest people.

America used to be a nation where a person could improve their station through hard work. Little by little, that possibility is being eroded.

The amount of debt you carry limits your freedom. There are laws that prevent a boss from harassing an employee, but if you are saddled with crushing debt you aren’t likely to file a complaint with HR for fear of hurting your career. If you don’t have the means to hire a lawyer to defend yourself, you simply don’t have access to the rights and freedoms the Constitution provides you.

But the other problem with this debt business, is where the money goes. The people who hold your debt can use the cash to buy politicians and force legislation that ensures nothing will ever get better. If you are concerned about education in the US, or health care, or climate change, the best way to fight any of these things is to aspire to financial freedom.

The system wants us to work and work and work and die. We all have causes that we would like to champion, but with banks and collection agencies breathing down our collective necks, most of us simply don’t have any energy left over at the end of the work day to apply towards bringing about any real change.

Debt is the booted heel upon your neck. You can fight injustice more effectively on your feet than on your back. Make no mistake, the system is designed to knock you down.