Congress Does Not Want You To Save

For all of their talk about wanting the American people to save money, Congress and the Federal Government are doing everything in their power to cause you to spend money.

Think about it—why is there a stimulus plan?  Why does Congress pin everything on the banks not supplying credit?  It’s not because Congress wants you to have an emergency fund, pay of debt, or increase your savings.  In fact, it’s exactly the opposite.

Gold Standard

It started back in the early 1900s with the Gold and Silver standard.  It used to be that money was actually worth something tangible.  You could go to the bank and trade your currency for actual gold or silver—and as the price of gold or silver changed, so did the currency.

What this did was guarantee that your money was worth something.  The U.S. Government couldn’t just inflate it (like they’re doing now) because they’d have to get their hands on more gold—not an easy thing to do.

So the money that you saved wouldn’t change that much in value—and that, in turn, encouraged saving.  Now, with our paper money that’s backed by nothing, that penny gumball that I had as a kid is now 25 cents.  And this credit crisis has made it worse, because the feds have lowered the interest rates so much that you make next to nothing in your savings accounts.

Minimum Wage and Welfare

Another way that the government discourages savings is by attempting to guarantee that, if you work, you will make enough to survive.  This tells the public that it really doesn’t matter if you blow all your money as quickly as you make it, you can always find some job to support yourself.

And it inflates the currency further, because it requires employers to pay their employees more, and they inflate the price of their goods to cover, which in turn means that their minimum wage has to go up to cover the new cost of food.

And, hey, if you can’t get  job, we’ll cover you then too—we may even take better care of you than you were able to do with your minimum wage job.  So, we don’t encourage thrift, or saving for the unexpected, but continue to convince everyone that there’ll always be a job (or the government) to cover you if you fall on bad times.

Going After the Credit Card Companies

And that’s even behind what Congress has going on trying to create some kind of credit card bill of rights.  It’s trying to force banks to lend money to people and control the interest rates and the fees.

First off, I thought the money was the banks, not the governments?  What right does the government have to tell me what to do with my property?  I thought that’s why we declared independence from Britain.

Secondly, didn’t Congress learn their lesson?  They encouraged banks to make toxic loans to people who couldn’t pay it back to get people into houses.  They made all sorts of deals and mortgages possible because of their rules.  And the whole thing went belly-up and they blamed the banks!

Now they’re doing it again, trying to artificially set rates and fees instead of letting the system control itself, and they’re going to point the finger in the opposite direction when it all falls apart.

Save!

Even though Congress is against you, I encourage you to save.  Save in a precious medal if you want, or save in cash.  It’s important that you don’t fall for the trap of easy credit.  It’s important that you take care of yourself and your family.

The government is always at odds with individual liberty, therefore if the government is so eager for you to spend, you should probably know that it’s in your best interest not to listen to them!