My father was fond of observing that the only sure way to have genuine mourners at your funeral was to die in debt.
I must have taken this fatherly advice a little too seriously because debt and I have been life long companions.
Most recently of course, as a retired clergyman I acquired the biggest debt of all when I retired, a mortgage.
But having been retired for some time that debt is about to be discharged.
However lightly I might take it however debt is a serious matter.
As the song has it:
You load sixteen tons , and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I ow my soul to the company store
Debt is a form of social control. Nobody is going to rise up and demand the end of injustice, there will be no barricades in the city of the indebted. Debt keeps us in our place and the company store keeps us just fed and watered enough to keep us fit to work and drunk enough at the weekends to ensure that we cause no trouble for the company which owns us lock stock and over a barrel.
Of course you could say that in the 21 Century this view of indebtedness is out of date and unrealistic but students now leave University with sizeable student loans which take years to pay down.
People who lose their jobs through redundancy or incapacity will have to rely on loans from Banks or Pay Day lenders to fund them before their benefits become payable.
And despite the associated risks individuals are incurring large, even in Japan, inter generational, mortgages in order to put a paper roof over their paper house.
And amongst all the news today we have been told that the Con-dem project has not finished, there are more cuts to welfare promised by the Chancellor because he can and because he will not countenance raising taxation.
According to research published by The Resolution Foundation up to 650,000 more UK Households would face debt peril, defined as spending half of disposable income on repayments, if interest rates rise by two percentage points.
Inevitably the report in the Financial Times notes that in this situation the poor will be disproportionately affected with 7% of the poorest fifth having half their income claimed by repayments compared with 3% of the richest fifth.
But hey, that's OK they don't vote Conservative.
Recently the Archbishop of Canterbury was quoted rehearsing an argument that I have made in this Blog, that inflation is a tax on the poor and it is the tight control of inflation that is being relaxed, so whilst the Chancellor will not raise taxes on the wealthy, he will raise a tax through inflation, on the poorest.
Inflation which reduces the value of assets also reduces the value of debts, which looks like a good thing, almost 'forgive us our debts' or at least reduce their value through inflation but it overlooks the fact that in his prayer Jesus asks that our debts are forgiven as we forgive others indebtedness.
Of course we could recall the Year of Jubilee in which all debts were written down and each persons patrimony was returned but for that we might have to wait for the return of a Labour Government or Judgement Day whichever comes the soonest.
So we sit back and let this social experiment continue as the post war settlement is renegotiated, public ownership is discredited and everything is sold off to the lowest bidder.
Now we take our own rubbish to be recycled and soon we will delivering our own letters and paying for the privilege into the bargain.
And to add insult to injury Mr Clegg is at it, preening and posturing as he declares that he will talk to the party with the most votes first after the election and would be happy to coalesce with anyone, perhaps we should all vote UKIP just to see the look on his face, before the economy sinks like a stone and we're all genuine mourners at the graveside.
I must have taken this fatherly advice a little too seriously because debt and I have been life long companions.
Most recently of course, as a retired clergyman I acquired the biggest debt of all when I retired, a mortgage.
But having been retired for some time that debt is about to be discharged.
However lightly I might take it however debt is a serious matter.
As the song has it:
You load sixteen tons , and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I ow my soul to the company store
Debt is a form of social control. Nobody is going to rise up and demand the end of injustice, there will be no barricades in the city of the indebted. Debt keeps us in our place and the company store keeps us just fed and watered enough to keep us fit to work and drunk enough at the weekends to ensure that we cause no trouble for the company which owns us lock stock and over a barrel.
Of course you could say that in the 21 Century this view of indebtedness is out of date and unrealistic but students now leave University with sizeable student loans which take years to pay down.
People who lose their jobs through redundancy or incapacity will have to rely on loans from Banks or Pay Day lenders to fund them before their benefits become payable.
And despite the associated risks individuals are incurring large, even in Japan, inter generational, mortgages in order to put a paper roof over their paper house.
And amongst all the news today we have been told that the Con-dem project has not finished, there are more cuts to welfare promised by the Chancellor because he can and because he will not countenance raising taxation.
According to research published by The Resolution Foundation up to 650,000 more UK Households would face debt peril, defined as spending half of disposable income on repayments, if interest rates rise by two percentage points.
Inevitably the report in the Financial Times notes that in this situation the poor will be disproportionately affected with 7% of the poorest fifth having half their income claimed by repayments compared with 3% of the richest fifth.
But hey, that's OK they don't vote Conservative.
Recently the Archbishop of Canterbury was quoted rehearsing an argument that I have made in this Blog, that inflation is a tax on the poor and it is the tight control of inflation that is being relaxed, so whilst the Chancellor will not raise taxes on the wealthy, he will raise a tax through inflation, on the poorest.
Inflation which reduces the value of assets also reduces the value of debts, which looks like a good thing, almost 'forgive us our debts' or at least reduce their value through inflation but it overlooks the fact that in his prayer Jesus asks that our debts are forgiven as we forgive others indebtedness.
Of course we could recall the Year of Jubilee in which all debts were written down and each persons patrimony was returned but for that we might have to wait for the return of a Labour Government or Judgement Day whichever comes the soonest.
So we sit back and let this social experiment continue as the post war settlement is renegotiated, public ownership is discredited and everything is sold off to the lowest bidder.
Now we take our own rubbish to be recycled and soon we will delivering our own letters and paying for the privilege into the bargain.
And to add insult to injury Mr Clegg is at it, preening and posturing as he declares that he will talk to the party with the most votes first after the election and would be happy to coalesce with anyone, perhaps we should all vote UKIP just to see the look on his face, before the economy sinks like a stone and we're all genuine mourners at the graveside.
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