Economic Recovery for the Wealthy

It's time to take a serious look at what has divided this nation economically.  It didn't just begin in 2007 or 2009 or even 1909, but that's closer to the beginning of this economic mess.

In researching, we can find something all the way back to the land grab of the earlier settlers from the Native Americans and say the loss now is simply a matter of reaping what was sown for the foundation, but I believe our Creator is much more benevolent than that.  The real problem is we keep trying to resolve the last problem, by creating a new problem.  That tradition can be traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

We are only going back as far as the time before the Great Depression, known as the Roaring Twenties.  That was a time in which the mindset changed across the country.  Labor was no longer exchanged for goods, because an Income Tax became a part of America in 1913, as well as the founding of the Federal Reserve.  Once everything had a dollar value, the true value of everything became askew.  Sadly, the most detrimental change was introduced when inherited land became collateral.

The land was no longer seen as the true valuable asset it was to produce in perpetuity, but rather it had a value at the bank.  So large properties were often divided amongst the heirs, with many of them heading to town on the proceeds from the sale of the land.  Smaller parcels did not produce what had once fed a large group of children around the table, so debt for seed became common place.  Others used the land to borrow for extravagance and "live large" which left them in debt with no way to repay or pay taxes, when the economy crumbled in 1929.

The next generation enjoyed the post war economy, but few realized it was founded on debt.  VA loans were offered to all those young men who served in WWII.  They literally began their adult lives in debt.  For those who did their part of the war effort on the home front, there was FHA loans.  Every American had their chance at the American Dream, which for most included a mortgage.  As the economy blossomed with industry, there was time to pay off that mortgage.  I'm not sure many today would remember the "mortgage burning parties" of early sixties, by those who married in the WWII era.

Once mortgages became part of the American dream, a car payment was no problem, what with all the job security abounding in Industry!  Credit cards were a great way to get what you "needed" as the social status standard continued to appear to be upwardly mobile.  Incrementally, debt became the foundation, while gold and silver left the equation.

There are many boomers now figuring mortgages, car payments, and retirement options, simultaneously, while may in the following generations have decided to just live large for the moment and never seek to acquire or amass.  The American dream has simply been redefined for the majority of Americans.  And as for the wealthy few at the top, many of them are invested in the debt of the lower 98%.  It's truly that simple.  Our nation went from seeing land as the way to provide for a family in perpetuity, to living "hand to mouth" with money.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/why-wal-mart-is-getting-too-expensive-for-the-middle-class-215417616.html