Don’t Feed the Bears or be a Bear… or Even a Sheep!
Not to steal Stephen Colbert’s thunder, but “bears” are a threat to this country at this very moment.
Bear with me! It’ll all make sense in a bit.
When I was a kid, we drove on a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park. I thought it was the neatest damn thing since Evel Knievel screwed up trying to jump the Snake River Canyon!
Then I saw the “Don’t Feed The Bears” sign…
It didn’t make any sense to me until my dad explained that if we fed the bears that were capable of caring for themselves, the bears would end up becoming dependent on humans for food and when winter comes the bears would become sickly, spread disease and many would end up starving.
It’s just one of the basic laws of the jungle that makes sense when one thinks about it.
Unfortunately, we’re forced to feed a lot of “bears” in our society. There are many people who are at least partially capable of caring of themselves, but those aren’t the ones that we can anything about without changing major national policies and pissing people off. They concern me, but not this blog.
The bears I’m talking about are “us”.
We have become a society consumed with consuming the material things of this world.
THIS ISN”T A BAD THING!
What is bad is when we allow our materialism get out of control to the point where we purchase all the goodies on credit, making ourselves bears (and the creditors the stupid ones feeding us) and not being able to survive without the credit.
The economic crunch is absolutely on. Call it a “down turn” or a “recession” or whatever you wish to call it, but when the big punch comes (and I think it'll be sooner than most expect) I think we’ll see a lot of starving bears and will be able to do little about it.
The starving bears aren’t the only ones that will get hurt. We all stand an even chance of getting hammered.
When Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma went tits up because of the oil bust and over-extended credit, a lot of completely innocent folks got financially hurt. There were hundreds of acres of repossessed oil exploration equipment rusting in barren wheat fields because there were no domestic buyers with the cash or credit to put them the hardware to good use.
Eventually we recovered, some of the equipment was domestically rescued and put to use. But a large chunk of it was sold to foreign powers for use overseas or sold for scrap. It was sad to see the once proud roughnecks (who had been unemployed after the crash) having to take jobs with metal scrap companies, chopping up the rigs that had previously brought them riches. It was like watching a cowboy having to put down his once reliable horse and not knowing what he was going to do when the deed was complete.
While the bust was a horrible thing, bankers in Oklahoma saw the errors of their ways. We now have some of the most financially secure banks in the nation.
The backbone of the Pickens Plan is the financial sector of this country, and our financial sector is in horrible shape. The reasons for this are multiple, but basically boil down to us living as “credit bears” for the last two decades and no one telling us “NO!”
On an individual level we can help the Pickens Plan become a reality:
Conserve energy (which should help reduce the cost of implementing the plan and increase the cash in our collective pockets)
Change our consumption patterns to reduce or eliminate the unnecessary use of credit.
Use the credit we have sparingly and wisely.
Don’t accept anything from the “government dole” unless you absolutely have to. Every dollar the government spends is a dollar on credit because they can’t operate within their means. Yes, they're credit bears too!
Check your retirement plans and bank accounts for economic soundness. If it isn’t sound, MOVE IT!
Help sick and injured “bears” with their finances if possible, ensuring they understand how they got into their situation, how they can get out of the situation and how fiscal responsibility improves the economy and security of our once great nation.
Pitch the plan, support the plan, bitch about the plan, tweak the plan, apply the plan to your daily lives, ensuring others see the positive effects of it.
Don’t be a “bear” waiting for the next morsel of food…or even a sheep waiting to be lead.
If T. Boone had wanted a herd of sheep, he could have bought them already!
Bear with me! It’ll all make sense in a bit.
When I was a kid, we drove on a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park. I thought it was the neatest damn thing since Evel Knievel screwed up trying to jump the Snake River Canyon!
Then I saw the “Don’t Feed The Bears” sign…
It didn’t make any sense to me until my dad explained that if we fed the bears that were capable of caring for themselves, the bears would end up becoming dependent on humans for food and when winter comes the bears would become sickly, spread disease and many would end up starving.
It’s just one of the basic laws of the jungle that makes sense when one thinks about it.
Unfortunately, we’re forced to feed a lot of “bears” in our society. There are many people who are at least partially capable of caring of themselves, but those aren’t the ones that we can anything about without changing major national policies and pissing people off. They concern me, but not this blog.
The bears I’m talking about are “us”.
We have become a society consumed with consuming the material things of this world.
THIS ISN”T A BAD THING!
What is bad is when we allow our materialism get out of control to the point where we purchase all the goodies on credit, making ourselves bears (and the creditors the stupid ones feeding us) and not being able to survive without the credit.
The economic crunch is absolutely on. Call it a “down turn” or a “recession” or whatever you wish to call it, but when the big punch comes (and I think it'll be sooner than most expect) I think we’ll see a lot of starving bears and will be able to do little about it.
The starving bears aren’t the only ones that will get hurt. We all stand an even chance of getting hammered.
When Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma went tits up because of the oil bust and over-extended credit, a lot of completely innocent folks got financially hurt. There were hundreds of acres of repossessed oil exploration equipment rusting in barren wheat fields because there were no domestic buyers with the cash or credit to put them the hardware to good use.
Eventually we recovered, some of the equipment was domestically rescued and put to use. But a large chunk of it was sold to foreign powers for use overseas or sold for scrap. It was sad to see the once proud roughnecks (who had been unemployed after the crash) having to take jobs with metal scrap companies, chopping up the rigs that had previously brought them riches. It was like watching a cowboy having to put down his once reliable horse and not knowing what he was going to do when the deed was complete.
While the bust was a horrible thing, bankers in Oklahoma saw the errors of their ways. We now have some of the most financially secure banks in the nation.
The backbone of the Pickens Plan is the financial sector of this country, and our financial sector is in horrible shape. The reasons for this are multiple, but basically boil down to us living as “credit bears” for the last two decades and no one telling us “NO!”
On an individual level we can help the Pickens Plan become a reality:
Conserve energy (which should help reduce the cost of implementing the plan and increase the cash in our collective pockets)
Change our consumption patterns to reduce or eliminate the unnecessary use of credit.
Use the credit we have sparingly and wisely.
Don’t accept anything from the “government dole” unless you absolutely have to. Every dollar the government spends is a dollar on credit because they can’t operate within their means. Yes, they're credit bears too!
Check your retirement plans and bank accounts for economic soundness. If it isn’t sound, MOVE IT!
Help sick and injured “bears” with their finances if possible, ensuring they understand how they got into their situation, how they can get out of the situation and how fiscal responsibility improves the economy and security of our once great nation.
Pitch the plan, support the plan, bitch about the plan, tweak the plan, apply the plan to your daily lives, ensuring others see the positive effects of it.
Don’t be a “bear” waiting for the next morsel of food…or even a sheep waiting to be lead.
If T. Boone had wanted a herd of sheep, he could have bought them already!
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