“The Burden of Debt is as Destructive to Freedom as Subjugation by Conquest.”
“We encourage you wherever you may live in the world to prepare for adversity by looking to the condition of your finances. We urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt. . . . If you have paid your debts and have a financial reserve, even though it be small, you and your family will feel more secure and enjoy greater peace in your hearts.” – The First Presidency, All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Finances, Feb. 2007, 1
President N. Eldon Tanner taught:
“Those who structure their standard of living to allow a little surplus, control their circumstances. Those who spend a little more than they earn are controlled by their circumstances. They are in bondage” (“Constancy Amid Change,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 81).
Slavery is the result of either subjugation by conquest or succumbing to the bondage of debt. Debt is when you borrow against the future. You get a present advantage for a future obligation. Not only do you have to pay back the money that you borrowed, but also the interest on top of that.
The Founders knew that borrowing can be an honorable procedure in a time of crisis, but they still deplored it just the same. They looked at it as a temporary handicap that should be alleviated as soon as possible. They had enough experiences with debt to now the effects that it can have; leading to the corruption of both individuals and nations.
With the individual, excessive debt limits the liberty and freedom of the debtor. It can be depressing. They can be afraid to change their profession or pass up financial opportunities, which a free man might risk. Heavy debt taints an individual’s happiness. They carry a perpetual burden every waking hour. They seem to feel a sense of being perpetually threatened as they “ride the razor’s edge of potential disaster”. There is also the looming feeling of waste, like a man that is making payments on a dead horse. This results from spending money on wants or even needs that have long since past. It means sleepless nights, a burden of grinding weight on your shoulders that increases with every tick of the clock, and often at usurious rates.
The age of the Founders was a time when debt was recognized for what it really is. They considered frugality a virtue, and even when an emergency came up and they needed to borrow, they believed in borrowing frugally and paying it back promptly.
Thomas Jefferson said,
“The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pockets to pay for it would make our country one of the happiest on earth. Experience during the war proved this, and I think every man will remember that, under all the privations it obliged him to submit to during that period, he slept sounder and awoke happier than he can do now.”
The Founders felt that the worst kind of debt is that which results from splurge borrowing, ie. going into debt to enjoy temporary luxury of extravagant living “beyond ones means.” They also knew how this behavior could be a snare to those that are watching others do this. However, all the illusions of debt-financed prosperity disappears rapidly when it comes time to pay for it. The results are often bankruptcy, abject poverty, and even gnawing hunger from the lack of the most basic necessities of life. Just like the Prodigal Son that would have filled his belly with the husks that the pigs ate. (Luke 15:16)
The Founders believed that debt should be abhorred like the plague. They saw excessive indebtedness as a form of cultural disease. Benjamin Franklin said,
“Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another the power over your liberty.”
The Founders believed that the debts of a nation are no different than the debts of an individual. The fact that this debt is shared by the whole of the people does not make it less of a burden. While they knew that in a case like war, the nation may need to borrow, they still believed that the nation should get out of debt as quickly as possible in order to enjoy complete solvency and prosper. Thomas Jefferson said,
“I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”
When it comes to passing on the debts from one generation to the next, the Founders had a very clear viewpoint. The generation that created the debt should pay for it so that the next generation would be truly free politically and economically. It was their belief that passing their debts onto their children would mean that they were born into bondage or involuntary servitude, that they did not vote for nor subscribe to. They stated that it would be in the very literal sense taxation without representation and a blatant violation of a fundamental republican principle. Jefferson considered inherited debt to be immoral.
It is very clear that the nation that we live in today, we are spending the next generation’s inheritance, if not the next generation after that, or more! There is no way that the amount of debt that we have can be liquidated. In addition to this fact, we are also committed to pay for additional future liabilities!
Can we return to the Founders formula? Only if the people awaken to the situation and determine to go through fiscal withdrawal and kick the habit of splurge spending. The author, W. Cleon Skousen, of The 5000 Year Leap states that he has a proposal that is in the book entitled “The Healing of the Nation.” While there was the possibility at the time that the author wrote this book, I do have to wonder myself if it is still possible in this day. His plan avoided a very deep depression, which I think that we are going to head into no matter what. There seems to be no repentance option left, except for the painful one. We have been told in the scriptures, that if we will not humble ourselves, we will be compelled to be humble. Perhaps that is what it will take for our nation to repent of the excessive debt that we all now find ourselves in.
Every Federal Reserve Note (so-called “Dollar”) is borrowed into circulation. Someone at sometime somewhere went into debt in order for that Federal Reserve Note (or electronic digit) to exist. It is a debt based money system.
On the other hand, the system that our Founders setup was a credit or commodity based money system. Someone at sometime somewhere had to work to create the ore from which gold and silver coins were made.
The two systems are diametrically opposite to each other. In fact you could say that one is Lucifer’s system. We will never get out of debt until we get back to the Lord’s money system.
The Lord’s economic system is the United Order, the practical organization that practices the law of consecration. To enter this system, one gives all that he owns to the Lord. We cannot give what we don’t own. Hence, indebtedness can potentially keep us out of the United Order.
Lorenzo Snow described the United Order as “principles of union” that the saints would enter before the judgments of the Lord would come. He likened it specifically to Noah’s Ark. Thus, debt can keep you from “getting on the ark” in a manner of speaking. Thus, it’s important to liquidate debt as quickly and prudently as we can.
G. West – “We cannot give what we don’t own. Hence, indebtedness can potentially keep us out of the United Order.”
I never thought of it like that.
I’m a very simple guy, Skyler! I don’t like complicated stuff.
You’ve got to read my book, “Building the Ark: Preparing Today to Live in the United Order.” It’s a free download for cryin’ out loud! I believe its message is so important, I’m willing to forego profit on the PDF downloads. Here’s the link. Just click on the “File Download” link under the “Add to Cart” button.
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/building-the-ark—preparing-today-to-live-in-the-united-order/72663
The paperbacks are still for sale, but readers can download the PDF for free. I believe it’s critical that church members understand these principles that have been revealed for a long time now.
Greg: Yes, but I believe that even under the United Order there will be a need for a medium of exchange, or a monetary system. I also believe that gold and silver coin will fit that need.
Or wheat…
Wasn’t it Orson Pratt who said there was more security in wheat than in silver and gold? At least you can eat your investment!
Greg, I’m not disparaging wheat, or any other food security. But in a fully functioning and prosperous economy gold and silver fill that “medium of exchange” need. Need I mention that the Nephite monetary system was based on gold and silver? As well as being the most efficient possible with their 1, 2, 4, 7, system.
Brother Montgomery,
I fully respect and agree with what you say regarding “a fully functioning and prosperous economy.” What happens when the economy ceases to function and prosper? That’s where we’re headed, at least for the United States and Europe. Here’s what we have been told by leaders of the Church in times past.
“I will tell you a dream which Brother Kesler had lately. He dreamed that there was a sack of gold and a cat placed before him, and that he had the privilege of taking which he pleased, whereupon he took the cat, and walked off with her. Why did he take the cat in preference to the Gold? Because he could eat the cat, but could not eat the gold. You may see about such times before you die.”
–Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 4:3
“…The Lord is not going to disappoint either Babylon or Zion, with regard to famine, pestilence, earthquakes, or storms…Lay up your wheat and other provision against a day of need, for the day will come when they will be wanted, and make no mistake about it. …We shall want bread and the Gentiles will want bread, and it we are wise we shall have something to feed them and ourselves when famine comes.
–Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 18:121
In a prophecy about future, regional civil wars that will consume the United States, Orson Pratt said:
“If a war of this description should take place, who could carry on his business in safety? Who would feel safe to ut his crops in the ground, or to carry on any enterprise? There would be fleeing from one State to another, and general confusion would exist throughout the whole Republic Such eventually is to be the condition of the whole nation, if the people do not repent of their wickedness; and such a state of affairs eans no more or less than the complete overthrow of the nation, and not only of this nation, but the nations of Europe.”
–Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 18:341
We should also be mindful of the well-known warning in the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, verses 16-18, that no man will be permitted to “buy or sell” unless he bears the “mark” of the beast-kingdom. That should give anyone pause when it comes to placing confidence in gold, silver, currencies, etc. The time will come when people will need permission to trade.
Of course, each of us must learn and follow counsel as the Spirit dictates. If someone has great wealth and wishes to protect it in gold, that’s wise. Hopefully he will also spend a portion of that wealth on food, wheat, and long term storage items.
The most current prophetic counsel on preparedness involves four steps.
1. A three-month supply of foods you normally eat.
2. Water (unspecified amount)
3. A financial reserve (the amount is unspecified because it will vary by country and region).
4. Long-term storage (staple foods like wheat, rice, grains, beans that can be stored for long periods).
In over three decades of studying Church prophecies on the last days, I don’t recall any specific counsel for individuals (not nations, governments) to buy and store gold. I don’t recommend against it. I just emphasize that it may not be as useful as one might imagine. If we’re going to pave the streets of Zion with gold, we can assume it will be plentiful. Imagine a time when gold might have no more worth than asphalt.
Greg,
I think we’re talking past each other. I agree with you that food storage is essential, and may separate the wheat from the chaff. Or be the “Noah’s Ark” temporal salvation for those with ears to hear. Further, I never said people should necessarily store gold or silver.
However, I believe that under the United Order, and when things finally do stabilize and the economy if vibrant and prosperous, gold and silver coin will be used. Why wouldn’t they use it? Just as the Nephites used gold and silver (not sure if was actual coin or not, or just weights of gold and silver)?