I was watching Suze Orman, all fired up, talking about what is happening to the economy these last few days. I liken the warnings Suze has been giving to individuals for the last decade, to the warnings that environmentalists have been giving regarding how we live so irresponsibly. The only difference is that instead of money, it’s the resources of the planet we are using and borrowing.
She said that the economy, built on lies and deceit, lack of regulations, combined with greed at the very top, all worked out to mean trouble for the American Economy. She then added that “Main Street America is not so different from Wall Street. Families buying homes they couldn’t afford, leasing expensive cars, putting purchases on credit and basically living off of money they don’t actually have but that is borrowed.”
Here is what she advised we should do to protect ourselves: First of all, we need to stop living financial lies – Suze shared that if you are living an honest financial life, you will be fine no matter the state of the economy. Ways to live honestly include: don’t buy something unless you actually have the money, keep cars for 10 years, and downsize home size and possessions. Oprah shared that it looks like the country may return to a cash economy and Suze agreed that it is possible, and smart to base purchases on the money in the bank and not the desire for the object.
Geez, all of this sounds so familiar to me. We are living environmental lies just the way we are financially. Financial sustainability is no different than environmental sustainability. If we pay attention to how much we spend, don’t ask for credits but make sure we keep generating enough to replenish our bank accounts, think about unforeseen hardships and what we will leave to our children, then we won’t find ourselves on the edge of a cliff when things go bad. Downsizing, keeping the things we buy for a longer period of time; all familiar words to people who try to reduce their consumption or think about how much waste they generate.
Environmental sustainability is just the same. We need to change our ways now and stop borrowing from the planet before it collapses the way our economy is collapsing today. We can’t continue to act irresponsibly and use the resources of the planet while polluting it. That, also, is living a lie.
Suze Orman couldn’t empathize with the couple on the show because they “were living a lie and absolutely set themselves up for this situation.” Her solution, the first step to recovery, wast to tell them that “they need to start being honest.”
So people, if you can’t make the analogy, let me put it simply for you. We have been living dishonestly for too long now, lying to ourselves and to the world. If we don’t learn to live with more respect towards our planet, the animals and the people of our world, sooner or later our loans will catch up with us.
If we put our minds together, the best is yet to come.
So be honest,… do something!
