Private Debt Enormous
Instead of being shocked at the fiscal folly of his elected officials, the average John Q. Public has committed the same mistakes in his own personal life. With his lust for material goods easily satisfied via the credit card, the charge-a-plate and the "friendly" loan, he and 100,000,000 other Americans are wallowing in the midst of a glittering buy-now, pay (or repossess) later binge unparalleled in the nation's history.
"Consumer credit — the key to the rise in private debt — has increased over 550 per cent since 1940. In the last 10 years it has more than doubled" (Buy Now, Pay Later, by Hillel Black). By 1970, experts predict consumer credit will total $107 billion, nearly double the present $56 billion.
The situation has become so outrageous in "prosperous" America that a person is almost considered a traitor to the nation if he is not up to his neck in debt. Without the huge debtor class, "the nation's great industries would slow to a crawl, and the price of almost everything would soar" (Newsweek, January 8, 1962).
Do you know what the immediate effect would be if Americans no longer bought automobiles on time? "First of all, there would be at least a 50 per cent reduction in the number of cars manufactured. In turn, this would mean America would produce 8 per cent less steel, 24 per cent less malleable iron . . . and 31 per cent less synthetic rubber.
"In terms of jobs it could mean unemployment for 370,000 wage-earners who make motor vehicles and parts. The work force of 2,000,000 people engaged in automotive sales and servicing might be cut by a third. Probably 100,000 petroleum workers would no longer have jobs. [All totaled, the number of unemployed from this one major cutback could reach over 1,100,000!] Finally, the havoc that would result in our economy in general would make any of the post Second World War recessions appear as years of almost unbounded prosperity" (Buy Now, Pay Later).
Just as in the case of the overstuffed defense industry, we can't put up with the Great American Debtor much longer — but we can't do without him. What a dilemma!
This great "pillar" of the American economy is already beginning to crumble under its crushing burden. "During the fiscal year of 1959 nearly 89,000 families failed financially, a 300 per cent increase over the last decade and MORE THAN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF BANKRUPTCIES [personal plus business] FILED DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE DEPRESSION OF THE THIRTIES" (Buy Now, Pay Later).
It can't go on much longer!
Threat from Without
As if these overawing internal problems were not enough, America now faces the prospect of an ugly trade war with our bought-and-paid-for "allies" in Europe. The beginning skirmishes have already been fought — with the U.S. the loser. Many industries have already felt the pressure from foreign competition — steel, hand and machine tools, heavy machinery, clothing and sporting goods — to name but a few.
The profit squeeze in business — due in large part to industry's desire to hold down prices on internationally competitive goods has reduced the profit margins of the nation's leading 100 corporations 20 per cent in the last decade.
If you are a chicken farmer, you know first-hand what is happening to your export market in Europe. 70% of U.S. poultry exports to the Common Market have been whacked off just in the last year, shut out by a rising tariff wall. The entire $1.1 billion agricultural market in Europe is in danger! The loss of this farm market, reported Senator George D. Aiken of Vermont, could be enough in itself to trigger a depression.
"Later Than We Think"
In a very sobering dispatch from Washington this past May, news analyst Andrew Tully reported: "The time is later than most Americans think. AMERICAN BUSINESS . . . ALREADY HAS STARTED TO FIGHT FOR ITS LIFE against European competition. . .
"The individual worker will have to forsake a wage boost here, the manufacturer an extra profit there. (But who is willing to take the first healthy slice?)
"It will be a painful time for almost everybody. But it is going to have to be faced because THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE EXCEPT A MASSIVE DEPRESSION."
Exit the Dollar
It is no wonder, after all that we have seen, that the once-impregnable dollar is in such a shaky position, coming under suspicion throughout the free world.
About 70 foreign countries are keeping gold in numbered cages 85 feet below street level in the Federal Reserve vault in New York City. Each week a few millions more worth of gold bullion is transferred there from the U.S. Assay Office five blocks away — a constant, steady hemorrhage of our economic lifeblood!
Moreover, not one red cent of the remaining 15.7 billion is really America's, either. Foreign claims against U.S. gold now total 23 billion! There is practically no latitude of movement, should our creditors put on the pressure!
Will this happen? Will the screws ever be tightened? How long will confidence in the plummeting dollar remain? Notice this alarming quote from Warren W. Butler, publisher of the Lakewood, California, HERALD-AMERICAN. On May 23, 1963 he wrote:
"The position we have enjoyed since World War I, more than 45 years ago, as the leading financial power of the world has evaporated. . . Today control of world finance is on the continent of Europe. The Yankee dollar is under an ominous cloud. European central banks in such countries as France, West Germany, Switzerland and Italy are now calling the financial shots in the Free World; it is becoming more evident as each day passes. The American dollar has gotten into the position where their sympathy and consideration is essential to its survival in world trade. . ."
Imagine! Once-mighty America now finds herself in economic subjection to nations who lay prostrate at her feet just 18 short years ago!
"These banks have been patient for only one reason," continued Mr. Butler. "They know that if they tightened up on our credit without some real financial reforms within the United States at the same time the resulting crash in this country would dwarf what occurred in 1929 and would be so great that it would engulf them all.
"It's about time that we put the brakes on the government hand-out, both within our country and on an international scale. . . We must begin to put our house in order or the European central banks will be forced to begin closing in on us . . . for their own protection from the chaos of COMPLETE FISCAL BANKRUPTCY."
No Way of Escape!
The tragic thing is that the nation as a whole is not showing any indication of correcting itself. Instead, signs point to more taxes, increased spending, bigger bombs, deeper debt, more competition and a continued loss of gold — all culminating in a fantastic wash-out. You, however, can escape this impending peril, if you will put your house in order. You need not suffer the punishment God is allowing to fall upon our heedless peoples, who have rejected every right way of His and have sunk into the mire of materialistic depravity.
Just before the 1929 crash, those who saw what was coming were able to juggle their finances and weather the storm. When the final depression comes, NO amount of financial "wheeling and dealing" will help. No businesses, no corporations, no banks (even with "deposit insurance") are going to limp past the "Big Bust," as many did after "Black Thursday."
No hoard of salted-away "greenbacks" is going to save anyone either. With all the gold gone, a dollar bill will be as worthless as a moldy rag. "On the day of God's anger, WEALTH IS OF NO AVAIL: goodness [obedience to God's laws] alone saves man from death. . . He who relies on his wealth shall wither" (Prov. 11:4, 28, Moffat translation).
God prophesies of our people: 'They shall cast their silver in the streets [money will be worthless] and THEIR GOLD SHALL BE REMOVED: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: [you can't eat money or credit] because it [money, the lust for material things] is the stumbling block of their iniquity" (Ezek. 7:19).
God is our Rock, our Refuge. Obedience to Him and reliance upon His protection is the only answer!
One reason that this nation is in such dire economic straits is that our people have not followed the immutable financial laws that God has set in motion for our own good. In Malachi, the third chapter, God thunders to modern-day Jacob or Israel — our English-speaking lands today — "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation" (verses 8, 9).
If our people had obeyed even this one law, the nation wouldn't be in such trouble.
Protection Offered to YOU
Even if the nation as a whole won't repent, you as an individual can repent of your disobedience against your Creator. Read Ezekiel 18:21-23. God gets no pleasure in seeing you suffer. Also, you need to get in harmony with God's financial laws. When you do, you will come to know God, that He is real, that He blesses those who put their trust in Him, who make Him — the Super quadrillionaire of the Universe — their financial partner. To discover in detail what these financial principles of God are, write for Mr. Armstrong's free booklet, Ending Your Financial Worries, and also the article, "How to Get Out of Debt."
By seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33), by serving God, not mammon (money and the things money will buy, which will soon perish), your heart will be increasingly centered in the work of God and His coming Kingdom — the only things of concrete, lasting value in the turbulent years ahead. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). You will be laying up real treasure in heaven where no, "crash" is going to wipe out its value.
The soundest investment for your dollar today? GOD! "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. 3:10).
Take God up on His challenge!
"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation (tribulation) which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3:10).
Yes, you can have supernatural PROTECTION when the "Big Bust" comes!