Frank J. Buchman

Cowboy • Horseman • Writer

Economic Remedies Lie Neither In Wiseness Nor Work

Money  is scary.

What’s happening to investments makes one cringe, if an attempt is made to understand it. With our naivete, we never could comprehend how stock markets worked completely, despite taking several economics courses. It didn’t bother much,   though, because we never really had enough to affect us any to speak of.


However, now the monetary situation has become so widespread and serious that we, too, are alarmed. Used to be when we did have an extra penny, we would lock it away where the guaranteed payments were above anything else we knew about.

We recall two and a half decades ago, though, when very high interest rates brought destruction to many farmers. They were too high for a person to borrow operating capital, and then pay the compounding charges, let alone principal. Today’s guaranteed payback, that most consider insignificant, is still far better than subtraction.

The not-uncommon stories of finding estate fortunes buried in cans is not the way   advised in the Bible, but it sure seems better than putting funds into many of today’s investment opportunities. Will Rogers’known quote, “I’m more concerned about the return of my money, than the return on my money,” definitely holds water today.

Crash of the stock market in 1929, subsequent suicides and years of economic   depression and poverty didn’t soak in when we read about them. Neither did it when Dad talked about working for a dollar a day, with barely a roof over his head or a shirt on his back, and being unable to buy land for $10 an acre. Or, like a friend said, “Not even having enough to buy a nickel hamburger after a ball game.”

Now, we’re closer to understanding. There is a market difference today, though. As
tough as it may have been then, most of the population was self-sufficient, to a point. They could raise a garden, shoot a rabbit, cut firewood and skimp by. Not so now, as few could survive without purchasing.

What does the future hold? Nobody on earth really knows, and one only has to read or   listen to the soothsayers to realize this. None have a sound solution or forecast. One thing is obvious: people don’t have to buy new cars and homes. The economy has long been based on those purchases, and they can’t be bought without money

The traditional saying, “The harder you work, the luckier you get,” has generally been true. However, now all of that work can quite easily go down the drain. Gambling and get-rich-quick schemes have helped a small percentage, but for everyone who reaps from them, the vast majority loses.

Even those making seemingly wise stock market buys are now losing. As another said,
“Money is always there, but the pockets change; it is not in the same pockets after a change, and that is all there is to say about money.” Certainly, cash is essential to survive, but a person can’t take all of the wealth in this world with him when he goes.

As difficult as it is, the best way to analyze this all comes in Psalm 37:18: “The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritances shall be for ever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time; and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.”

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