Fathers and the Global Financial Crisis - Part 2

Warwick Marsh
Fatherhood Foundation Newsletter - April 2009

We live as fathers in the shadow of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). How can we protect and provide for our families? We also ask why and what as we look into an uncertain future. Many questions are rushing through our minds.
 
One of the fathers of the modern men's movement Edwin Cole used to say, "The man who knows how will always have a job, but the man who knows why will always be his boss".
 
Before I try to shed light on some of the deeper questions facing both us and the world, let me tell you a bit more about my own personal financial crisis that I experienced in the mid-eighties.
 
In 1985 the building company I owned was placed in receivership. I lost everything I had ever worked for. Several weeks ago I told you how in a momentary lapse of reason in my own financial crisis I even thought about committing suicide.
 
Sadly many fathers in times of financial crisis not only have these thoughts, but put them into action. Great failure can induce great madness. The solution is to dig deep into your spiritual roots and remember the words of Jesus, "a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions". Both fame and failure are imposters as Rudyard Kipling noted in his famous poem 'If". Still it is hard to stare them down in the heat of the moment.

At the time of my Personal Financial Crisis, I was living in a magnificent 35 square home in a beautiful rural acreage on the outskirts of town. We had both a Volvo and a Fairmont in the garage and the capacity to enjoy the better things of life. I will always remember applying for the dole, and how embarrassed I was to join the ranks of those 'drop kick dole-bludgers'! It was most annoying as the lady at the Centrelink Office refused to accept that I had no money. If you want to humble a man, strip him of everything he owns and send him to a Centrelink office. I was both annoyed and humbled at the same time.
 
We had to move out of our home. We had nowhere to go. All of my 'friends' had disappeared - funny how that happens. However John was one of the faithful few and offered for us to live in his fibro garage at the rear of his home. We had to renovate it a little to make it liveable for our family of 5, but home is where the heart is.
 
So my wife and I and 3 young boys squeezed into a makeshift home that flooded in big rains and that was half the size of the living room of our previous house. Funnily enough we were happy to have a roof over our head, some food to eat and to be together. More than that we began to realize what true wealth consisted of: Friendship. 'The friendless owner of the world is poor'. Friendship with God, friendship with family and friendship with the friends who still like to hang out with you even if you are a grand failure by other's estimations. It was a time of healing and recovery. As my brother said to me at the time, "It's a long way from the bottom to the top, but it's a very short distance between the top to the bottom."
 
Unfortunately in the next decade many people are going to experience the truth of my brother's statement. Many families will have to adjust their fiscal expectations and in doing so experience the deep joy that comes from realising the best things in life cannot be bought.
 
I have just finished reading a new book by Harry S. Dent Jr, written in 2008 called 'The Great Depression Ahead - How to Prosper in the Crash that Follows the Greatest Boom in History'. Harry is a demographer and a student of cycles and even though he has got several predictions wrong over the years, his batting average is pretty high. The demographic winter we have created through an 'abortion-on-demand-self-centred society' is about to drop us into a financial black hole.
 
Harry Dent is not the only one saying this. My wife came home from a recent Colour Conference where Sy Rogers was talking about the 80 year historical cycles as laid out in The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe published in late 1997. This book prophesied that the world would enter a winter in about 10 years (2008/09) that will last until 2020 as part of an 80 year cycle. This winter could involve war, economic depression and times of social upheaval. Unfortunately such periods as those we are now entering into are breeding grounds for fascist and totalitarian dictators. War becomes a political wildcard for both financiers and world leaders who want to perpetuate their power.
 
Rather than trust the opinions of a few, listed below are several YouTube links that should provide some answers for your many questions. All the authors of these links could see the GFC coming. Take everything with a grain of salt but as you compare you will find the truth of the statement found in Proverbs, 'Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.'
 
Harry Dent Discusses the Coming Depression.

Neil Howe and The Fourth Turning.

Gerald Celente - Trends forecaster.

Peter Schiff - Economic commentator.

Peter Schiff & Steve Keen - Dateline ABC

Prof Steve Keen, Economic Commentator, Western Sydney University.

The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control: this gives much of the how, why & what of the current financial crisis and the history of money.

Freedom to Fascism: a Political and Economic Journey of Discovery - a groundbreaking film by Aaron Russo.

G. Edward Griffin, The Creature from Jekyll Island.

Professor Niall Ferguson, Conversation with History - a very broad-based look at the current crisis from an historical point of view.