When I was a kid, I did not live in the biggest house on the block. My parents did not wear designer clothes, nor did they drive new vehicles. Our house stayed the same color for at least a couple of decades, until it really needed to be painted and even then, my father knew a guy who knew a guy who could get buckets of exterior white paint for cheap. We were not upper crust ... we were a typical working class family.

My father always paid in cash and never bought on credit (and this includes his mortgage and automobiles). Every month it was the same routine ... basic utilities, groceries, gas, and the rest went into his safe. My dad's motto was, "If you can't afford to hand over the money for it, you don't need it." He never borrowed a cent from anyone ever ... and that includes the bank.

Then there was that couple of years while I was in high school, my mother started receiving offers for credit cards in the mail. Credit cards? What a novel idea. Buy now, pay later. She could buy me all the designer clothes and shoes my teen heart craved and not have to worry about paying for it. In fact, the credit card companies were so helpful, she'd only have to pay a bit back of the total balance each month ... just one little tiny bit. So, one card turned into two, then three, and then, and then, and so forth until she realized she was in big trouble. Every month when the bills were due, she worried over how she would pay and how the debt had turned from hundreds into thousands.

I don't remember how it happened exactly, but I do remember it was I who convinced her to tell my father. My mom was deathly afraid my dad would leave her, but I knew he'd help, even if he couldn't understand what she did or why she did it. I remember she began crying hysterically as she admitted it to him, but that he was quite calm when he told her, "Listen, quit your crying, I'll pay for it, but you give me every single bill from every single company you have and don't hold anything back. Then you go get cashier's checks for every balance, send the payments by registered mail, you promise me to never do this again, and cut those damned things up." Off to the safe he went, off to the bank and post office she went ... feeling lighter than she had in months. Credit cards were out of her life forever as was over-consuming.

I look at Wall Street, the bail out, the Fannie Mae/mortgage fiasco and I think of my father and people like him. People who only bought what they could afford and lived well below their means, even if it was meager. People who understood your worth was directly tied to how you treated others and not what you possessed. If these people were in the majority, would this be happening now?

Every time I see my daughter's ex-boyfriend's parents in their Escalade because as the ex told us, "People look at us and are jealous because we have one," I know they're on the verge of bankruptcy (he told us that too), yet they want others to be envious. Desire trumped rational behavior. Stuff means more than integrity these days. Moms shopping with credit cards so their child can have the latest, greatest fashion trend is traded for stillness. Buying a house 10x bigger than you need and 10x more than you can afford is normal these days. More space seems to equate to being a better person, a better family ... just better.

I truly wonder when will America finally understand peace of mind is worth more than anything you can buy? Will it take another Great Depression for families to finally stop consuming? I must admit, lately I've been looking at the financial news thinking, "Poverty is a wake-up call American desperately need." Global warming, hurricanes, and floods aren't doing it, but being homeless, maybe that'll shake things up a bit." Will it turn into "my box is bigger than your box?"

So, what are your thoughts on the current state of economic affairs in the US? How have you been impacted? Are you a saver or a spender? Do you want America to wake up or do you think it never went to sleep ... buy, baby, buy? I'd like to know.