The Problem With America's Economy

This past month, a very clear and simple explanation of what is wrong with our economy, came across my desk.  I recently cancelled a credit card, and made sure an old one was still active.  Being in business, I maintain proof of my expenses by using a credit card.  At the end of the year, between Paypal, a credit card, and bank statements from my business account, I'm still able to figure my own taxes and have proof of my deductible expenses.  I know some folks don't believe we should be using the current monetary exchange, but I'm not there at this time.  I figure as long as I'm filing with the IRS and rendering unto Caesar, I'll be using fiat currency, which includes credit cards.  There is no balance carried on my card, just documented proof of expense and payment.  I say all this for no real important reason, other than to clarify, I believe it is possible to be debt free and utilize the benefits of a credit card.

The other evening, after cancelling the one card, I called my the company with my old card and the young man who answered immediately informed me what a privilege it was to be speaking with someone who had maintained an account with the company for the number of years I have.  Truth be told, I've probably had this account more years than he's been alive!  At any rate, as he looked my account over, it seems I qualified for a new and better perk.  I listened and it did sound good, so we went through the process.  I received a letter confirming all that we had discussed and explaining my new status.

In this letter was also a credit report with my FICO score.  Upon reading the information, I did a Google search as to the category of my score.  As it turns out, I have an excellent FICO rating, but it isn't perfect.  It is, however; higher than Warren Buffet's is reported to be.  And that is just the tip of the ice berg in what is wrong with America's Economy.   Since my score was not perfect, a disclosure was included to inform me of the key factors that adversely affected my "excellent but less than perfect" credit score.

1.  Lack of recent installment loan information          translation:  I'm not in debt.

2.  Too few accounts                                                   again:  I'm not in debt

3.  No recent revolving balances                                       "          "

But wait, there's more.  Based upon my recent information in the account upgrade, I now have a credit limit that is nearly twice my annual income.  Now that I've officially seen this in writing, there is no doubt the economy is not improving.   My credit line is not based upon my ability to repay what I borrow. 

In a nutshell, having no debt is the official adverse factor in my credit rating, but I now qualify for a line of credit that would enable me to spend twice as much as my annual income.  This is to further "encourage" our consumer driven economy.  A quick search of consumer driven economy reveals that our spending is actually considered a part of the gross domestic product!  This is the epitome of "digging one's way out of a hole."    

Business Values in a Free Market

What happened to being able to conduct business according to your moral values?  What's so wrong with a business person with personal values?  I'd rather do business with someone who valued their own integrity and reputation.  In the past several months, I've taken note of more than one situation in which someone claiming to stand on Biblical principles is sued, threatened, or fined, while those who oppose are actually lauded and applauded.

Last week we ran a couple of links in which one company was fined for refusing service.  When that news hit social media, a gofundme page was set up.  Gofundme, however; took the page down.  The claim was made that the people could keep what had been collected, but gofundme was not willing to "do business" in this case.  Let's consider for a moment that this online collection company undoubtedly has every possible loophole included in its "terms of service" and let's even assume someone actually read the entirety of the terms of service page before hitting "I agree," something is still missing.  Gofundme is not a religious organization, and it does make a percentage from each donation, but since the fine had to do with a state law, Gofundme had a way out.  I haven't checked to see if there are any gofundme pages to raise bail or pay a traffic ticket . . . gofundme has already lost my business.

The point I'm making here is honesty and integrity are being legislated out of doing business.  I'll be crass and crude for just a moment.  I saw the photo of the two lesbians who targeted this small business.  I've also seen the photo of the florist that was targeted for refusing service for a gay wedding.  You can't tell me there isn't a gay florist nearby that would have been happy to provide arrangements, bouquets/boutonnieres for the wedding.  That is not being stereotypical, or maybe it is.  In my previous town, I frequently did business with a florist who was openly gay.  I never asked him to make arrangements for a wedding, though.  But this isn't about me, this is about some companies being able to choose who they do business with, while others are not able to choose.

Now on to my crass, crudeness.  That baker could have simply told the two women she would bake their cake, but . . . A friend of mine suggested he would take photos of a gay wedding but tell them upfront, every dime he made would be donated to an organization that speaks out against the LGBT agenda.  That's one idea.  Another one, since you know you'd be targeted, is to make just enough comments as to cause them to wonder if you'd put anything unpleasant in their cake . . . then after they paid for the cake and had it analyzed, the cake would be ruined but no unpleasant additive would be found.  Then, of course, there might be the temptation to just get on their level, smile sweetly, take their detailed order, and lick the beaters . . . before making the cake.

To legislate against values and integrity could have some very disturbing results that congest the court system for years to come.