Student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt recently, no small feat considering credit card debt hasn’t dramatically decreased. This means that student loan debt just increased by that much, and many students won’t ever have the jobs that make enough to justify the debt in the first place.

Mortgage debt can also be crushing if you are underwater on your mortgage. I don’t have to explain what it can do because we are ALL suffering today one way or another due to other people’s mortgage debt.
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Sure, you can pretend that the rest of the world doesn’t really exist and just focus on your own life, but i think that people who are informed about various external forces at work that do affect our lives, are better prepared for what life throws their way. More knowledge is always better.

If everyone settled for the status quo, we’d get nowhere. Each one of us has a personal responsiblity to be engaged and involved in our democracy, if only as a voter.

It’s more than “finding fault.”

Even people who “have a plan” can get whammied by unexpected events. Life happens. You can do a lot to protect yourself, but no plan is perfect.

I personally believe that you are making people less active in winning because you are too concerned with having them focus on everything being out of their control, instead of allowing them to see HOW to climb those obstacles. People don’t want to know that there are obstacles, they already know that, they want to know how to overcome them!

Now for why I consider myself to be an expert in this area. I USED to do what you do! I USED to look at the supposed problems! I USED to focus on why things were happening to me! It wasn’t until I started reading more from Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Brian Tracy, and John G. Miller that I realized I was wasting my time, AND when I began to ask myself different questions. You should really read a book called QBQ- The Question Behind The Question, because I believe you focus on asking the wrong questions.

My life and direction changed completely once I started to think differently. I actually started defeating my obstacles instead of looking for who put them there. I now believe in myself and my ability to secure my own future, without relying on Washington or anyone else to put a rule in place that will protect me. What I learned is that there is hope and empowerment in realizing I do not have to accept your ideas and solutions.

With all of that said, I would like to respectfully say that we are hardly alike. Maybe you should re-examine which one of us is more “single-mindlessly focused”, since you are the one that is in the box, and I am the one outside of it telling people there are more options where I am.

I think this conversation is done since their is nothing else I can add without repeating myself over and over again. Thanks for the conversation and debate.

Read Brad @ Enemy of Debt´s latest article – Motivation 101 – Saving To Buy, Instead Of Buying To Slave!

The difference, I think, is that I also work to inform people of various other forces at work that are often beyond the ability of the average person to control. I’m talking about various government regulations (or the lack thereof), global economic events and just plain bad luck. You seem to be single-mindlessly focused on personal responsibility without acknowledging that sometimes, despite the very best effort and intentions, shit happens.

I didn’t mean to put words in your mouth but when you say that someone is FORCED to rack up debt, to me, it is just like saying it is a tool because in order to deal with the emergency the debt is seen as a tool to “help” them. there are other choices but you don’t wait to start making better choices and when you find yourself in a bad situation say you didn’t have a choice. The choice is to take control and make a plan before you have a problem! Does that mean that you will always be fully prepared for huge emergencies? Not at all, but you will at least be better prepared to deal with them. Medical debt is a different story though. I am in no way saying that people that have medical debt deserve it or caused it. What I am saying that there are things out there that come with a good financial plan that will help them. Dave Ramsey talks about a young family that the father ends up getting cancer and passing away. Because of the steps they took prior to learning about the cancer, the wife and family were able to deal with those things without debt.

As far as the Government not putting pressure on lenders, I will have to find you the stories, but it absolutely happened. It happened in the Clinton years and the Bush Presidency.

Even the worst medical emergency can be planned for, would you agree with that. Just because people haven’t doesn’t mean they can’t. Bottom line: People do not plan for life! That is what I am trying to change!

Read Brad @ EOD´s latest article – Motivation 101 – Saving To Buy, Instead Of Buying To Slave!