Where Did My Money Go?: An Honest Look at Perpetual Debt and the Fiscal Slavery of the American Family from a Christian Perspective

Where Did

My Money Go?

An Honest Look at Perpetual Debt and the

Fiscal Slavery of the American Family from a Christian Perspective

Bob Hopkins, RG (Regular Guy)

Copyright © 2012 Bob Hopkins

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-4031-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-4032-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012902640

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/10/2012

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

Resources

To Alex,

May you rest in the loving arms of

God’s Grace until

we meet again, and what a glorious

day it will be.

To Debbie,

The love of my life, thank you for always

believing in me.

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this moment to thank so many who influenced the words herein and those who believed, without a doubt that I would amount to nil in this life and they would have been exactly right had it not been for the grace of God.

For my brothers and sisters in the fire service who give selflessly of themselves placing their lives at risk that others will be assured lifesaving help if ever the need arises.

I would like to thank the multiple writers, researchers, authors and opinions that have given resources in which this book would have not been possible.

And for Caron Miller whose love and discipline set me on the right path one afternoon many years ago. And to all those who have been there throughout a difficult childhood to guide me in the direction in which God’s work will be done.

To my loving family who take this journey of life with me. That is, my loving brothers and sisters, father, mother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and countless friends whose behavior, both positive and negative helped shape my understanding of a Christian world view and rise above the obstacles of life.

And to Alex, my son who taught me what God’s love for us is all about, from you I have learned the most. And most of all to my loving wife Debbie who’s deep love and commitment to me astounds me each and every day. Thank you for being a witness to my life. You are a virtuous woman.

To God in heaven above for it is he that gives me nourishment, significance and hope that this troubled world is not the end all of things. Thank you Father, for hope through your Son, Christ Jesus.

Introduction

There is no finer way to destroy a bourgeois society than to debauch the currency . . . Vladimir Lenin

Most people I know ponder a serious question at the end of each month . . . Where did my money go? It would seem, as Dave Ramsey, author of numerous financial help books says, There seems to be too much month at the end of my money. This problem has become the norm for an overwhelming majority of Americans today and quite problematic. Why? The answers are actually numerous however, there are some basic principles in place in our economic system that are so easy to explain yet mysteriously removed from the average way of thinking. The result . . . a nation chained to debt and financial ignorance.

I was cursed with serious debt for the first 20 years of my working life and clueless as to why. I continued to find myself living paycheck-to-paycheck, making minimum monthly payments, and constantly broke. I just couldn’t get a handle on my earnings. I worked hard, obeyed all the rules and considered myself a working-class American that just couldn’t get ahead. I soon began to realize I could barely keep my head above water. I would look around and observe people with nice homes, new cars and toys and simply figured everyone else had a better paying job or was just born luckier than I was. That was until I began to understand my lack of knowledge about personal finances and modern systems of money management and realized the pernicious lies that the financial institutions had taught me.

Like most Americans, I believed if I worked hard and paid the bills I would eventually get ahead in life. This may have been true for former generations of Americans, but it wasn’t working for my generation and certainly not for me. So, several years ago I set out to discover what was wrong with my generational way of thinking, and through prayer and ample study, I not only discovered answers that changed my family tree but found great insight into a matrix of modern financial misconceptions and misguided ideas designed to enslave us all to a world corporate banking system. I found that I had been taught very irresponsible principles created to keep you and me in perpetual debt which results in huge profits for the banking industry.

What you will obtain in this work is knowledge. Knowledge is power, and that is what I hope you gain more than anything in order for you to reach God’s will for your life. Hopefully, what you read in this work will astound you, open your eyes and even make you angry, which may motivate you to take your life back. You probably won’t like everything you discover here. You may even feel offended and disagree with some or all of it and simply refuse to accept it and that’s ok too. You live in a country where you can do that, at least for the time being. At that I would encourage you to simply close the book and walk away. But some will accept this information and it will radically change their lives forever. Valuable insight awaits those who wish to shake the chains of debt. As Jesus said, Let those who have ears, hear. In other words, a few will get it and most will not, but for the few who listen and begin to apply God’s principles to their finances, life will never be the same.

This is not a book about getting rich. It is about finding out why you are in debt, how you got there, and how to get out. It is about simple Christian principles and how they will wake you up to the truth. First, by helping you re-define wealth in your head. Secondly, by assisting you in accepting this key fact: life is hard! Then, it is about explaining the financial powers that use us as pawns in their mega-billions game of chess and how they do it. Next, it is a book of knowledge for the average American family that is drowning in leverage and lastly, it is about identifying the evil knocking at your door in a culture dripping with materialism.

It is my hope and prayer that the information in the following pages will inspire you to seriously consider changing the way you look at money and get on board with forcing our politicians to make the necessary changes we need as a nation to return to the roots of our constitutional monetary system before we slowly lose our right to speak on behalf of ourselves. These times are challenging folks and I fear they aren’t going to get any better for most of us.

I am a simple man. I do not desire riches and power. I do not advocate a political party one way or the other and I do not hold a slew of letters behind my name to entice you to believe that I am any kind of expert in anything. With that said, know that I am not a financial advisor, attorney, political or social scientist and certainly not a writer, nor do I hold an esteemed degree from any widely respected university. I am just a regular guy (RG) who got fed up with the system of dept and accepted simple fiscal truths that have set me free from the debtors. I have learned deceitful methods of the financial systems and clearly understand the severe damage they are inflicting on people like you and me. I will attempt to expose those lies and share the simple truth with anyone interested in hope that they too will become some of the few who are not indebted to the banking beast.

Now, I challenge you to read on. This work is not about pushing any specific agenda other than freedom through the Christian faith and will hopefully challenge the reader to consider more peaceful and prosperous ways to look at personal finances. We live in a land of vast deception and misguided principles that work to ensnare us into a daily routine where nothing is as it seems. All the while systems and mechanisms of untold power far beyond our understanding work to enslave us. I wish to free as many from that beastly system as possible.

This information is not for the masses. It is specifically for you. If you choose, it will be the beginning of a radical but glorious journey. If you love your family and freedom and believe in a power in the universe more powerful and more important than yourself, then keep reading. If not, just keep doing as you are doing and you’ll keep getting what you are getting . . . more debt. Without divine knowledge, you will not be able to avoid it in our current culture. You will be amazed as this will be your first step toward freedom the way God intended it to be. Give it a chance, open your eyes and your heart and learn. Take a step away from the world and the culture of the consumer.

See to it that no one takes you captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Col 2:8

One third of the Gospel of Christ dealt with evil. Christ introduced the ultimate evil to the world and called him many names but was specific when he exposed him as the Devil. He is a liar and a thief and has been since the beginning of our time. He and his legions come only to kill, steal, and destroy. Jesus challenged us to know the enemy less we fall for his snares and that is exactly what the world does to us financially. This enemy works on every front of mankind and if you do not find yourself wise to his ways, your own nature will lead you directly into his pitfalls. When US Army General George Patton was asked how he was able to outfox the greatest German General of WWII in the North African campaign he replied, I read his book. General Rommel had written several books on military tactics which General Patton versed himself in. The result was victory over his enemy.

We must study and know our enemy’s tactics if we are going to defeat him. It will be extremely beneficial for you to do the same where your finances are concerned. Evil thrives in darkness. Ignorance is born in darkness and lurks there. Yet the truth shines a light upon evil and exposes it and evil cannot survive in the light. Truth is the light of divine knowledge and will prepare you for the battle. But knowledge will not occur through osmosis. You must obtain knowledge through study and experience. Knowledge will be your sword. Prayer will be your strength. Hopefully, this work will assist you in that endeavor. May God deeply bless you with insight to obtain real freedom on this earth.

Jesus tells us, If you are to live, you must die. This applies to our finances as well. If we are going to succeed in understanding this current financial culture we must be prepared to die to our current way of spending and consuming.

CHAPTER 1

Our Real State of the Union

There is one bit of advice given to us by the ancient heathen Greeks, and by the Jews of the Old Testament, and by the great Christian teachers of the Middle Ages, which the modern economic system has completely disobeyed. All these people told us not to lend money at interest; and lending money at interest – what we call investment – is the basis of our whole system . . . C.S. Lewis

We have a twofold problem. On one end of the spectrum, we have big banks and the corporations that have grown up around them making record profits via spending by the general population. On the other end, we have a fiscally broke middle-class that cannot curb its insatiable appetite for materialism. Add the two and the result is a bi-polar system with a dissolving middle. This emerging system means perpetual debt for most Americans, placing huge burdens on the working class as well as local, state and federal governments. And in the end, we have a new socialist regime bent on controlling all of it through an evolutionary process to redistribute wealth through a new world order.

The truth is our country is in a mess! Socially and financially and whose fault is it? The answer is much more complex than we may realize but basically, it’s everybody’s fault. It is the direct result of the self interest of human nature from the executive Wall Street banker right down to YOU! Yes, you and I and our inability to say no to ourselves have brought us to this point. Unfortunately, many ignore all the signs of future hardships and continue to live a life of mass consumption, self-indulgence and materialism.

Most Americans continue to purchase new cars, big screen TV’s, new computers, boats, ATV’s, electronic gizmos, various other luxury items and vacations in debt up to their eyeballs with maxed-out credit cards in order to have comforts as if nothing has changed. Unfortunately, one day, most Americans are going to wake up to find they are broke and credit cards will no longer bail them out. The party is over and another great depression or something worse could be on our doorstep. If you do not figure this out soon, you will become one of the latest under-class citizens of the new emerging American culture which will reflect only the rich and the poor. The rich, with their understanding of modern fiscal processes will have it all and the poor will be chained to perpetual debt as the practice of usury dominates society.

We have been too ignorant for too long about our own finances and the finances of our nation. As long as we could have our stuff, it mattered not what the shape of all things were. John Adams wrote, "All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from deficits of the constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as down-right ignorance of coin, credit and circulation." Once a nation of producers and savers, we have become a nation of consumers and spenders and with easy credit we have spent our lives right into debt hell and, to be more precise, 14.5 trillion dollars worth of debt hell. Perhaps it is time for us to wake up and stop living beyond our means and develop some kind of respect for the workings of our financial situation and understand something about our fiscal problems which affect each of us directly.

Our current situation is at critical mass, and we have purchased our way into it. But even amid the most turbulent economic conditions, our continued spending has resulted in corporate profits reaching an all time high while the middle class is under siege. So, here’s the skinny . . . The middle class is collapsing! That’s right! The substructure of the great American culture is eroding at a significant rate. This fact, and I will explain as we go why it is a fact, should shake you to your very core because if you’re wondering just what that means, then take a quick glance down south to Mexico, Nicaragua, or any other third world country. That is how we may look in the near future if the average American doesn’t stop consuming and start producing again and obtain some sense of responsibility for the mess we’re in.

Basically your children will not live the way you do. They will not be able to afford modern housing and nice cars. They will not be able to go to college unless they are willing to sign their lives away to college loan brokers who will keep them in debt for thirty years just to pay back the outrageous cost of a college education. This is how third world countries operate. The rich get richer at the cost of the destitute by keeping them poor, ignorant, and deep in debt resulting in huge corporate banking profits. Because of your debt, you are becoming poor and your children will be poorer.

You may live in a nice brick house and drive a late model car. You may have a garage full of stuff but based on the latest statistics, you don’t own most of it. You owe someone so you can have stuff and appear to be affluent. This is a false and bloated system that will sooner or later implode. Because of the money you pay out in interest during your lifetime to have stuff, you live in perpetual debt. This system is making us, in reality . . . poor and that poorness will most likely come to fruition in our children’s generation if not sooner.

And what about those corporate profits previously mentioned? They’re at an all time high because of middle-class consumption. As a matter-of-fact, the third quarter of 2010 reflected that corporate profits were the highest in US history, according to a New York Times analysis. At the same time, the national unemployment rate reached 9.8 percent while consumer debt has reached nearly 3 trillion dollars and the national poverty rate hit 15.8 percent. As of summer 2011, 40.8 million Americans were on food stamps as the country’s credit rating has, for the first time in history, been reduced. Cities, states and the US government are broke and massive budget cuts are going to add to an already problematic unemployment rate. Spending on education, police, fire, national securities, prison systems and hosts of entitlement programs are going to suffer huge cutbacks in the next few years.

Thousands of Americans will protest the cuts as unions and various workers organizations lose bargaining rights, yet none will have many answers to the curtailed spending. Politicians and union leaders will do what they can to save face, but the result will be cuts in spending. Jobs will be on the chopping blocks. But not everyone will be in the debt-filled-poor-house. There is a sector of America who will continue to do quite well.

Those making outrageous profits in today’s America are a small select group of CEO’s, corporate bankers and financiers, professional athletes and celebrities. This is where your money is going and it is going there because you are putting it there. We want stuff, we want to be entertained, and we want comfort and pleasure and we are obtaining it in mass proportion. We want what we want, when we want it, where we want it, and how we want it. The problem is it all costs money and these people at the top are more than happy to oblige. Our inability to curb our desire for materialism-via-debt is putting us into the poorhouse yet many simply refuse to see that this consumer lifestyle cannot last.

The United States has become part of the global economy. What does that mean to you and me? Well, you can forget a future of unskilled American employees earning $70,000 a year plus benefits working on a GM assembly line, because auto makers can now ship that same assembly line to China and pay their workers $1.78 an hour in a building with no heat to do the same job. What the politicians and the UN didn’t tell you is this wonderful world market means lower wages for American employees in order that companies can keep up with worldly corporate demands for cheap labor and huge executive incentives. American owned companies created 1.4 million jobs in other countries in 2010. The days of excellent wages plus insurance and other benefits for the average middle-class American worker may be numbered.

Recently I was stopped at a railroad crossing waiting on a train to pass when I suddenly noticed something. No boxcars! I realized that I hadn’t seen box cars on trains for some time. Most have been replaced by sea crates, the type placed on ships to China, empty, so they can send them back full of cheap products to be sold in your local Wal-Mart store. As a matter-of-fact, I observed several sea crates with CHINA emblazoned on the side of the vessels. In a recent television interview, Donald Trump was commenting that nothing of value is made in America anymore. It’s all made in China, he said. We are building China up to be the world’s most powerful country by our demand for cheap consumer products. Americans no longer make anything yet consume more than anyone else in the world.

For every sea crate that passed by, I envisioned thousands of American jobs disappearing with them. The fact is, and I re-iterate, industry has become global and high paid American jobs for the average Joe are going to be a thing of the past in order that American companies may compete in a world where corporate profits will be the mainstay of all industry. As Corporate CEO’s will become more disconnected with the general populace and less accountable as they absorb more and more company profits. The average CEO who grew up in Iowa has no problem living in Hong Kong if that is where the best profits are found.

This fact, along with more government interference, taxation and misguided regulations is sending companies elsewhere in droves and is also killing small business, the backbone of America. Today’s corporate climate is all about the bottom line and profits . . . obscene profits, actually, which are gobbled up by a very few at the top of the corporate food chain. In the 1970’s, most corporate profits were in the millions of dollars. Today,