Just for the sake of history...

I think I should record this "bailout" in our blog, so that when my children are someday trying to pay back trillions of dollars of debt to foreign countries after an economic depression, they'll have record of where it all started. Even though we're hearing plenty of, "phewww, thank goodness politicians passed that bailout bill. Now I can sleep easier." I'm convinced that nothing is that easy. Didn't we all learn as college students or teenagers that paying off one credit card with another is just not a good idea? Here's a snippet of the side of the issue we never hear about.

"100% against it [the bailout]. It will be financed by money that we don’t have- so either we’ll print more (thus devaluing the dollar even further and giving each and every one of us an increased tax through continuing inflation) or we’ll just borrow from China or Japan like we’ve been doing to finance war, etc. Not exactly National Security to be indebted to foreign creditors. Furthermore, it’s loaded with pork- special interest money. Have a look:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10057618-38.html?tag=nl.e433

Total number of bailouts gets us closer to $1.8 trillion in commitments, added to the 53 trillion dollars (you read that correctly) in commitments when you factor in social security, the federal debt and medicare. You don’t want to know how much that equals per taxpayer.

As an economic matter, it is no fix at all, and will likely make things worse (which is what happens when the gov steps outside its rightful role). A free market system is supposed to allow for corrections and downturns as a way to punish (not reward) in this case- the Wall Street Casino Capitalism. We aren’t doing anything but propping up bad debt that needs to be cleansed from the market place. You have to ask yourself- of the economists “for” the bailout, which are intending to say “good economic policy” or rather just looking out for their investments in Wall Street? No one knows. We also don’t know a lot about the process of these bailouts because so much of it is being done without our understanding. Everyone should be deeply concerned that legislation supported by only 25% of the American people was just voted and signed into law.

The American people have been had."

Hmmmm, I'm thinkin "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." Simple yet profound don't you think?

New Blog

For those of you who are interested in our "life in community" adventure, we are setting up a blog dedicated to recording our thoughts and reactions throughout the journey. As the disclaimer at the bottom of the community blog states, we are not experts, and we don't advertise this as THE choice for all people. We are just doing what God has laid on our hearts to do at this point in time. The community blog is authored by any of the four of us, and it will hopefully be an honest look at our experiences. There is a link to it on the side of this page if you need to find it again later. For now, there is a post from me, and a post from Tom, and more to come later I'm sure.

Prayers for Tom and Cassie

We found out last night that Tom's dad was killed in a motorcycle accident. Tom and Cassie traveled to Missouri today to be with family. Please keep them in your prayers.

Moving...

Many of you are already aware, but I thought I'd share with the others, that we are moving- but only a couple of streets over from where we live right now. Our potential new home is above. We are still in negotiation, but everything is looking pretty good. Why you ask? Good question. We're buying the house together with our good friends Tom and Cassie. All four of us will share in the ownership of the home. We'll split all of the regular homeowner costs and we'll all be on the title. We've all made an agreement that neither couple will vacate the home or stop paying mortgage payments until it resells or until the other couple refinances it in their names only if one couple decides they want to stay longer than the other. As it is though, we're all committed to being here for at least 2 more years. It quickly turned from a "ahh wouldn't it be great" conversation to reality as we researched the idea and pieces of the puzzle kept falling miraculously into place. Our current home sold before we even put a For Sale sign in the yard; anyone who has tried to sell a house lately knows how miraculous that is. Then, after some explaining and re-explaining, we got approved for some really good financing- another miracle since only 2 of the 4 of us have full time jobs and even those two jobs don't pay a whole lot. Not to mention the fact that we found a 2,900 square foot house in Wilmore that is in our price range to begin with. It just seems that God has gone before us at every step of this process.

We didn't enter this decision without much discussion, and financial aspects aside, the primary reasons for living together are as much spiritual as they are financial. We all have a desire to live simply, in community with others. We want to provide housing for international students or others in need with some of the extra space that will be in this home. If we all live on the same amount of space we are currently used to, there is still space left over to minister to others. We all recognize the growth that occurs when you live as a part of an accountable community. You learn to share, to give of what you have, to be more self-less, to appreciate the gifts and talents of all kinds of different people.

As the authors of the book Simple Living put it, "While many Americans remain attached to traditional standards of material progress, others are examining their values, their priorities, their lifelong goals, and are choosing to measure gain not by what they have, but by who they are, by how they live." OR, as my friend Cassie put it yesterday, "It's like buying in bulk."

We are so very excited! Certainly there are going to be minor conflicts as we all learn to live together, but we're all committed to making it work, we all believe that the personal benefits will outweigh the difficulties in the end. So, that's our adventure! Moving date will probably be May 1st, so if you're free that weekend and in KY, let us know! And, Olivia, can you believe our new address will be 102 Olivia Court? Crazy huh.