Good Lord, we’re in a lot of debt! We’re in debt as individuals and we’re in debt as a nation. This is bad metaphysics. You cannot dig yourself out of a hole by digging the hole deeper. But you can do something in your own life to say, in paraphrase of the classic film Network: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

A simple first step is to establish a cash economy in your own life:
good old green currency. “In God We Trust.” Change back from a dollar
(well, change back from a twenty anyhow). Here’s what I had to say
about this back in 1997 in my book Shelter for the Spirit: Create Your Own Haven In a Hectic World. It’s more relevant today than it was when that book was new:

          “I’m not opposed to shopping. I like it in fact. And I like
it more since I chopped up nearly all my credit cards. I did. Right
down the middle and again through that corner that said ‘expiration
date.’ Since then, I have sought to live by the principle of, by and
large, only spending money I have. A hundred years ago, that was common
sense. Today it seems wildly radical.

          “What has happened since I stopped shopping with money I
didn’t have is that my life has simplified on every level…Operating
on pay-up-front basics, I rarely make impulse purchases and therefore
don’t acquire a lot of intensive-care items: bric-a-brac that demand
polishing, clothes that demand dry cleaning. I am released from the
culturally entrenched notion that anything I admire I should buy, and
anything cheap that I even remotely admire I must buy….

          “However you wish to conduct your personal financial
dealings, making even a minimal effort to charge less and pay cash more
can guarantee your the following:

          “You will end up with less junk you wish you’d never bought, and your environment will be less cluttered.

          ‘You will look better in your clothes and feel better in your
house because everything that goes on your body or in your rooms you
will absolutely adore.

          “With fewer bills, you’ll have additional discretionary
income, and the satisfaction of being more fully in charge of your
financial life.

          “Your expenses will be easier to keep track of, and because
cash is so tangible, money itself will become more meaningful.

          “When you buy something you truly want—especially something
you’ve ‘saved up for’—you’ll feel like a million bucks. And you’ll
greatly improve your chances for having a million bucks since
you won’t be shelling out a fortune in interest every month and getting
bills for lunches that you forgot you ate.”