Financial Zombiism

In ancient Israel the sabbatical year (ever 7th year) was not only a year of allowing fields to be left fallow, it was also a year of debt forgiveness^{(Deuteronomy 15:1-2)}.

In China the ancient tradition of repaying debts before the Chinese New Year stems from the belief that starting the new year free of financial burdens allows for a fresh beginning and invites good fortune.

The Wisdom of the Ancients is Lost on Us

Suffice it to say that the wisdom of these ancient customs is routinely ignored in the modern world, where people and commercial companies, and entire governments routinely live above their means by borrowing upon their personal, corporate and national futures.

We think that with a little luck, what we cannot afford today can be paid for sometime in the future.

Some items we want to have, like a newer more reliable car, or a house are too expensive to buy by saving up for them.  besides it would be so nice to have them now, so off to the lender we go.  My personal, self control rule is “never borrow money to buy a non-appreciating asset.”  Houses appreciate, so you can borrow money to buy one.  Automobiles depreciate faster than you can imaging, so never borrow money to buy a car (no matter how good the financing rate is supposed to be).

The whole of the advertising world is focused convincing people they deserve to have “it” NOW! The decision-makers in companies and governments are no different and they are every bit as susceptible to the allurement of the money sellers’ commercial attacks on their true well being.  At best, the politician justifies that the people need this service right now, not later.

The legal interest rates charged on the worst of credit cards and payday lenders are barely distinguishable from those charged by illegal urban loan sharks.

Most of us allow the financial debts grow so we can acquire more now.  Soon the debt is so great it can’t be paid off, without a prolonged period of severe prudence and austerity (which is not going to be fun). Our debt load means we can’t quit our current not so great jobs to try to move up by learning new skills. Being able to make financial investments is out of the question.

Like the folly of kiting checks, the cost burden of making the interest payments on our debt has spiraled beyond the control of the legions of us unwary knaves, unwise business managers and foolhardy government politicians.

We are a Nation of Financial Zomies

We have become a nation of financial zombies, of economic slaves. This is the common almost universal folly of our day.  The ultimate example of this condition is when we find ourselves borrowing more money just to be able to make our interest payments.  We may even toy with the idea of filing bankruptcy to try to sidestep our voluntarily entered into obligations to the lenders.  But we don’t really take responsibility for our part in the bad decision we made.

The Globalist Financier Lenders Want us in Bondage to Them

However, our financial zombieism and debt slavery, is also the source of huge revenue flows for the super-rich financier classes who enjoy the proceeds of the burden they provide.

The wealthy modern neo-liberal globalist elitists who avidly promote the efficiency of a global “free” market system, and oppose all forms of tariffs, cause local workers to be exposed to the threat of a global “army of reserve workers,” (as Karl Marx referred to them) many of whom are willing to work for vastly lower wages than a local worker in a developed country could possibly survive on. The international “vision” of these globalist work in opposition national interest and to the general good of the people.

The financier types are not our friends. They are the folks who live comfortably up in the big house. They are the enslavers of entire nations.

The Globalists Have Deavestated the American Middle Classes

The rampant and resultant “off-shoring” of the jobs in America over the last 45 to 50 years has devastated the American working middle class, and it had caused the median household income to stagnate or actually to significantly decline if you use objective real inflation numbers (like the gold price of the dollar) rather than the government’s phony and distorted CPI numbers. (See the Globalism the Destroyer of the American Middles Classes post linked below for a detailed explanation of and objective real, real metric of inflation.)

This collapsing wage rate discussed in that post has been combined with the nearly universal acquisition and assumption of huge debt burdens to cause a decades’ long fall of the common working classes of people to near subsistence level existences.

Sadly all of this offshoring has turned the formerly prosperous manufacturing belt into the American rust belt. The societies of the former manufacturing regions are now characterized by rampant divorce, alcoholism, crime, debt slavery, runaway drug abuse and overdosing death rates, high suicide rates, and all the other products of a society in which workers cannot earn a living wage, or support a family.

This national (and international) zombieism is worse and more widespread than one might at first imagine. However the full story is worse than our imagination allow us to consider. The US national debt is $38.4 Trillion (11/28/25). That is $329,022/US taxpayer and growing! The US government’s unfunded liabilities (of future retirements and future government funded medical costs, et cetera) is more than $105 trillion and growing!

The interest payments alone on the national debt is $5.6 trillion and growing. That amount alone makes it the third largest item in the US annual budget. The combination of all of the state debts is $1.1 trillion (11/28/25) and growing. The combined commercial debt of US corporations is $ 22 trillion (per the FED, 11/28/25). The combined US personal debt level is $19.6 trillion (again, per the FED, 11/28/25). Personal credit card debit alone is $1.3 trillion.  That makes the total US Indebtedness $81.1 Trillion (again, per the FED, 11/28/25).

There aren’t enough Sisyphuses (US taxpayers) in the world to pay off debts at those levels, and like the average person who gets deeply into debt, those debts are not being paid down, they are accumulating.

The Key Metric – Your Personal Debt Ratio:

In corporate and commercial accounting the primary metric of this condition is The Debt to Equity Ratio also known as The Debt Ratio. The debt/equity ratio is the total liabilities (total debt) / total shareholder’s equity. This value shows the extent the owner’s equity can cushion creditors claims in the event of a bankruptcy and liquidation event. The debt/equity ration is a much better judge of this than the debt/asset ratio is (since assets are often over appraised and since they never sell for what they were appraised at during the virtual fire sale of a bankruptcy proceeding).

Generally speaking a bad debt-to-equity ratio is typically considered to be around 5, 6, or 7, indicating a very high level of debt compared to equity.  Such a high ratio may raise concerns for lenders and investors about the company’s financial stability and risk of bankruptcy.

The personal analog of the corporate Debt Ratio would be a Debt to Liquid Assets Ratio.  For these purposes liquid assets include:  1. actual cash, 2. any securities you may have (stocks or bonds you actually own in a brokerage account), 3. your 401k value (minus the income tax that will be due and any early withdrawal penalties which will be due; generally this is about 50% of the nominal value of your retirement funds) and 4. 1/2 of any home equity you may have above the principle balance on your home mortgage).  There is no universally agreed to number by which to judge this metric, but clearly lower is better.  Its a different metric, but in general mortgage lenders do not like to lend a borrower an amount that would require a monthly payment of more than about 40% of your monthly (after taxes) income value.

Government mismanagement aside, our debt burden is a crisis, the likes of which our predecessors could not have imagined.  None of our grandfathers would have imagined us allowing ourselves to get into the level of personal debt we routinely burden ourselves with today.  Nor could the founding fathers have ever imagined us allowing our government to willingly shoulder so massive a level of national debt.

The Personal Solution: Don’t !

Develop a systematic plan to get out of debt now.  Then live in that austerity until you have paid your way out of your bondage.  Then follow my personal rule (listed above).

First make a household budget. You will never succeed without a plan. Whatever that budget is be sure to leave something like 10% of the available funds for some kind of regular self indulgence. If you are too prudent and too austere you won’t make it. Revel in your occasional inexpensive indulgences so you don’t start to feel like you never get to have any fun. Buying your way out of your slavery is a kind of psychological warfare on your self. Make it work your way.

Cut up all (or all but one) of your credit cards now. Make a cash buffer (e.g. a bank savings account) for the inevitable emergencies of life in the real world. That buffer is NOT for personal indulgences, don’t squander it! Start making significant payments on the worst of your debts at once. That is the highest interest rate debts get paid off first. Never use a charge card again! Its is never a good idea!

Celebrate each credit card you payoff, and close the account the moment you its paid off. An under the limit charge card is NOT an asset or a just in case buffer; it is a grave danger to your freedom from debt.

If you have a home mortgage, making payments of 1.2 times the bank’s idea of your monthly payment. Over the thirty years of your home loan that single maneuver will decrease your total cost of financing by half (!!) and it will get your payoff done much sooner.

Doing without now is the road to future prosperity; get used to it. The millionaire next door does not look like he is well-off, because he lives like a tightwad and drives an older car. So should you. Never borrow money again for anything. Dave Ramsey may be an annoying personality, but his harsh advice is in your best interest.

Read The Millionaire Next Door, and Henry Ford’s My Life and Work; you need the encouragement. You can’t get out of a serious financial hole quickly. It takes time and tenacity.

You CAN buy yourself out of slavery, one payment at a time.

Don’t vote for politicians who claim they will let government pay for things it can’t afford.