Reality Looms for Have-Nots-In-Denial
Reality is fast approaching many folks who have conducted themselves as “have-somes” but were really “have-lesses.” They are now “have-nots” because of their foolish game. Many could have become “have-mores” if they had faced reality, saved more, bought less on credit and otherwise made good financial decisions.
But, for the most part, these have-nots-in-denial still play their game and refuse to face the reality of their situation. True, they have a nagging awareness of looming disaster. But they easily push back that feeling by going out and buying something (on credit probably) to reassure themselves that everything is okay. That game is coming to an end. Times are getting tougher for everybody across the board. And it is the have-nots-in-denial that will feel the pain the most.
The have-mores will absorb the increased costs and will often find a way to profit from the situation. Nothing wrong with that. That’s how many of them became “have-mores” to begin with.
The have-nots will make out alright. They already are used to doing money-crunch as a lifestyle. The poor have largely learned to work the system and have already been hard at work building up networks of help around themselves for a long time.
The situation looks bleak for the have-nots-in-denial. Getting more credit will likely become harder in the days ahead because of the current mortgage and lending crisis. The have-nots-in-denial will have less and less access to other people’s money in the days to come. Correspondingly, they won’t have access to a large portion of their own money because they are making payments on their past. What little remains of their cash-flow is buying less and less of the basic items necessary to live. They are being outed. Welcomed to the world of have-nots.
But isn’t the economy doing well? For the have-mores, yes. Not so good for the have-somes. But downright deadly for the have-not-in-denials. All that good news about the economy we read about is really more denial. A kind of denial the rich can afford, a denial the poor aren’t fooled by, and a denial that spells disaster for the have-nots-in-denial.
The reality of our economic standing is that high ticket luxury items are coming down in price, basic commodities for living are skyrocketing. When everything is lumped together the overall picture looks okay, but in reality its only great for those who buy high ticket luxury items (the rich), its pretty bad for those who buy basic commodities for living (everybody, but those basic commodities are already a much greater percentage spent of income for the poor), and disaster for the have-nots-in-denial.
Have-nots-in-denial will borrow money for the high ticket luxury items they “can’t live without” or that they “deserve.” They will pay more for them because of interest payments. Then they will have less to spend on those basic commodities that are increasing in price because they are paying off their debt load.
You can read more about the smoke-and-mirrors manipulation behind the rosy economic pictures we are being fed here, and here.
We are fast approaching a critical need for real ministry to the poor because we are fast approaching an increase in the number of poor among us. Many who have been “have-nots-in-denial” are about to be outed as “the poor.” The same difficult times will also mean the “have-somes” will have less money to give. That presents us with an opportunity.
What the church needs now more than ever is a ministry of hand-ups, not hand-outs. There is an increasing number of people with need and a decreasing amount of people with a decreasing amount of expendable income to share. Pouring money on a problem to hide it is fast becoming not an option. We now need to learn what we should always have been about before: offering real solutions to poverty that will lift have-nots out of their poverty for the rest of their lives.