Salmon Families Week 2: More about the Jones

Salmon Families Week 2:

More About the Jones'

There is something inherently beautiful about a stream, just like those that salmon make their spawning runs up each year.  It is little wonder that these fish are drawn upstream in this struggle for survival.  We too face an upstream swim as we try to keep our families on the right path, spawning a new generation of Christian adults through our efforts.

Last week we looked at living vicariously through our kids and at how keeping up with the Jones' is also a form of vicarious living.  Today we want to examine this idea further in the context of our finances.  The captains of industry spend a huge amount of money to show us the "good life" as they frame it, by burdening us with improper expectations.  How much money you might ask?  According to Statista, the statistics website (https://www.statista.com/statistics/272314/advertising-spending-in-the-us/) that figure for the current year is estimated to be $200 billion.  This number is greater than the Gross Domestic Product (measure of all national output) of such familiar countries as Romania, New Zealand, Vietnam, Hungary, and Ukraine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal).

So it is truly an uphill (upstream) battle to finish the course as we intend.  The flow that is the river of our economy is a torrent.  Then as we are influenced by the neighbors, friends, and others who have the so called good stuff to want it as well so we are tempted to buy it on credit.  Investopedia lists the current United States savings rate at 5.5% compared to a 30% savings rate in China.  This means that we are far more spend happy with our money a fact that lends itself to the insecurity most families feel financially.  With the low save rate and the high utilization of credit card debt $15,675 per household (https://www.nerdwallet.com/.../credit-card.../average-credit-card-debt-househ...) that carries credit card debt, it is easy to see why there is stress in the American home.

The rich rules over the poor,

and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Proverbs 22:7 NKJV

What are we doing to ourselves?  Yes the American dream is real and viable.  I am not against having nice things or improving our position in life, but my question is this, are we really improving ourselves by making these decisions.  No I am not encouraging everyone to go to extreme frugality by splitting the two ply toilet paper into two separate rolls, or making their own soaps, though there can be value in these actions.  I am just asking us to consider the consequences and to make some calculations once in a while as to how the decisions we make financially in keeping up with the Jones' truly impacts us beyond the impulse of today.

I am encouraged by something I see happening in my daughter's school right now.  She is a freshman at Greene County Tech, a public school in our hometown, where she is taking a course that is studying economics the first semester of the year and coupling that with civics the second semester.  This first semester economics course is being taught in a very useful, hands on and meaningful way.  They have examined macroeconomic concepts and are currently involved in a project at the microeconomic level that is teaching budgetting and forcing them to consider their actions and spending in a more intentional, thoughtful manner.  If we can get more of this into our schools, and if we can be intentional about sharing some (not all) of our struggles with our kids it will provide a firm foundation for the decision making they will be faced with as adults.

Swimming against the currents of credit abuse, non-stop advertising and the appearances of our neighbors is a very difficult prospect, but it can be done.  I hope that you will swim hard, continue the journey, and Do Well in the journey.  Your stress levels can ease, and your children can make it to and through adulthood on a positive track.  Keep the faith, with Christ all things are possible.