CREATIVE THINKING

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Harvey Firestone believed, “If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life. Ideas are any man’s greatest asset.” All of my life I have been intrigued, and have studied diligently, about the phenomenon of creative thought. I have tried to explore imagination, curiosity, invention, innovation, idea generation, and even reasoning by metaphor and analogy.

At my present age, I must confess that I am no closer to saying confidently that I understand how God engineered, designed, appropriated, and infused into the head and soul of mankind a function that would allow a person to rightly comprehend a need, and then hatch a creative thought to meet that need.

I can get my head around the neurons, dendrites, electrical currents, and storage aspects, but from whence cometh the ethereal composition of creative, and unprecedented thoughts? From a practical standpoint, I have learned that the challenging needs of our lives must not become the overwhelming component. It is, rather, the utilizing and appropriating of that creative process of overcoming the challenges that becomes the important and enduring aspect. Never underestimate the need that is challenging you. And never underestimate the creative resources you have available to meet that challenge
.

I love observing the creative mind functions of the people of India. Computer programming would certainly not be what it is in the world today were it not for the folks from India. In the southern part of India around the area of Salem, they were experiencing a huge problem with people being bitten by poisonous snakes and dying from the venom. The area was well known for the chicken farms and for egg production. The chickens and eggs attracted large numbers of vipers that also fed off the chicken and egg production. When the workers would reach their hands into the nests to gather the eggs, the vipers would strike.

I was performing a needs assessment study at the large regional hospital that served a population of over twenty million people. I was walking down a corridor with the director of the hospital and one of the department heads. Most of the beds had wooden boards instead of mattresses. The emergency gurneys were made out of old bicycle parts with two bicycle wheels instead of the usual four small gurney wheels. The delivery beds for the birthing mothers were made out of 4’X 8’ sheets of corrugated metal with a hole cut in the middle and a bucket beneath to catch the afterbirth. It was all quite sad and pathetic.

As we walked down the corridor, however, I passed a small ward where there was a machine sitting along one wall. I abruptly stopped and remarked to the director, “I didn’t realize that you had kidney dialysis capabilities at your hospital.” “We don’t,” he replied. “But,” I protested, “that machine is a kidney dialysis machine. We just finished donating to Ukraine a complete dialysis set-up including the reverse osmosis water purifying machine and all! The machine against the wall is a dialysis machine.”

“Oh, that machine . . . no, we found that machine and it is busy almost all the time to take care of the many people who come here with poisonous snake bites. We run their blood through it and it filters out the venom and they don’t die.” “How very brilliant,” I remarked. They had encountered a need and had latched onto a creative and unorthodox idea to meet that need. But how in the world could the human mind ever even come up with a concept like dialysis?

We usually don’t start cutting our wisdom teeth until we are faced with a bite bigger than we can chew. Necessity is often the mother of creative thinking. The necessity of a solution and the challenge of the pressing situations usually prod us into utilizing the creative advantages that we have available to us. And I personally think it is time to stand and cheer for the creative thinkers, the ones who face the challenges and set their hearts and minds to the business of creating solutions to our most complex needs. After all, what is this thing we call genius if it isn’t the opening up of one’s potential to God’s unfathomable wisdom?

Generally speaking, our culture teaches us compliance and the seeking of positions of security and safety. But the very fact of being alive must include the courage to seek the creativity that is available to us. It has to go beyond forbearance of the problem to the area of creative solutions. While in Africa, I was introduced to an old coastal adage: “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” Adversity has the effect of eliciting and stirring our talents that otherwise, in calm times, would have lain hidden.

When faced with adversity, Henry Ford used to say, “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” My attitude of life has always been that if I am pushed to the very brink by adversity, I can count on being shown the creative way to proceed on the ground, or else be taught how to fly.

“The struggle of life is one of the greatest blessings,” insisted Helen Keller. “It makes us be patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” I believe that overcoming is accomplished through the generous gift of wisdom and creative thought that is made available to us. If we will cultivate that gift and encourage those creative ideas, then our lives will be characterized by design, order, and accomplishment. Creative thinking is a powerful asset. 

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

DR. LIVINGSTONE, I PRESUME?

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Happy birthday, David Livingstone! Born 200 years ago, on March 19, 1813, in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland, David Livingstone greatly influenced the Western world’s attitudes toward the continent and people of Africa. He died May 1, 1873, in an area of Africa we now know as Zambia.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who penned, “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.” David Livingstone took that concept to an even higher level. When he was trying to find men to trek across the continent of Africa with him, his instructions were, “If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

By the time he was twenty years of age, he had resolved within himself to devote his entire life to the alleviation of human misery. He had been influenced by the writings of a medical missionary to China, and presumed he would spend his life there. China was embroiled in war at that time, however, and another notable Scottish missionary, Robert Moffat, persuaded Livingstone that Africa was the place he should serve. So, the Scottish missionary- surveyor- botanist- zoologist-explorer-medical doctor and anti-slavery campaigner, finished his medical, theological, and scientific courses, and sailed for Cape Town, arriving five days before his twenty-eighth birthday in 1841.

By the summer of 1842, he had already gone farther north than any other European into the difficult Kalahari country, and had familiarized himself with the local languages and cultures. Livingstone’s missionary and medical endeavors were always combined with his love and talents for exploration and scientific research. Early on, he was the first European to view and record information about Lake Ngami. Between 1852 and 1856, he was the first European to view, survey, and document information regarding the “mile wide” Zambezi River as it plunged over one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. He named the geographic wonder Victoria Falls in honor of his magnificent British Queen.

David Livingstone was the first to successfully make and document the transcontinental journey across Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. Aided by the Royal Geographic Society of London, he explored systematically the entire Zambezi River basin searching for an inland waterway across the continent of Africa. He was the first to reach the large Lake Malawi in1862. Some of the other “firsts” for discovery, surveying, and documentation were Lake Mweru, Lake Bangweulu, the Lualaba River, and even though others had viewed the expansive Lake Tanganyika from one spot or another, Livingstone was the first to explore, survey, and fill in the missing details regarding the huge body of water. He was eventually awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London for his incredible work.

Livingstone was an unusually determined fellow. When sick, tired, hungry, or otherwise challenged he would say, “I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward.” But, at one point in his pursuits, he was completely out of contact with the outside world for about six years. He was dangerously ill with malaria, dysentery, pneumonia, and ulcerated feet. He sent letters out with native runners. Only one of his forty-four letter dispatchers made it to Zanzibar.

But until the end he would continue to write, “I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose.” . . . “nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair.” Livingstone had admittedly wanted to discover and document the true source of the Nile River. He died without having successfully accomplished that. However, he more than achieved the grander, overarching dream of his life to devote his entire energies to the alleviation of human misery. “I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ.”

My nearly thirty years of travel throughout Africa allowed me to criss-cross the established paths of Dr. David Livingstone many times. I was able to travel in every country that he worked as a missionary, doctor, and explorer. I traveled by boat, train, airplane, and Land Cruiser. David Livingstone walked. In 1986, I visited Victoria Falls for the first time. On a later occasion, I was in Harare, Zimbabwe, needing to get to the city of Livingstone, near Victoria Falls. All the commercial airlines in that part of Africa were on strike.

I was able to hitch a ride on a small, private plane from Harare to the city of Bulawayo. There, I was stuck. Fortunately, the next day there was a cancellation on the overnight train, and I was able to secure a ticket on the sleeper train for the twelve-hour ride to Livingstone. As the fiery sun began to rise over Mozambique and the Midlands of Zimbabwe, I lifted the blind on the sleeper car and peered out over the vast expanse of southern Africa, wondering how David Livingstone would respond to what had happened to his Africa over the past 200 years.

Before getting into a taxi at the Livingstone train station and crossing over the Zambezi River at the border into Zambia, I took time, again, to visit the large statue of David Livingstone near the thunderous roar and spray of Victoria Falls. All over that part of Africa, as far north as Tanzania and Zaire, it was not unusual to run across memorials or signs pointing to where Livingstone had performed his missionary work or had held his medical clinics.

While working in Africa, viewing the results of his influence, I was impressed that Livingstone must have faced some pretty serious alternatives before he was twenty years old, and had made some intuitive choices at that time that had set into motion far-reaching consequences. Those choices and consequences had influenced and guided his behavior throughout his life. He stayed committed and focused until he died. He seemed to judge the value of something by deciding how much of his own life he was willing to exchange for it. The price ended up being high, but the accomplishments were astounding.

I have tried to allow Livingstone’s life to influence me. I have tried to make some of those same far-reaching choices that would help me consciously exchange people’s applause or approval for long-haul accomplishments. I would hope that I could stop chasing prosperity in order to pursue purity, and choose righteousness over riches. That’s not necessarily the popular thing to do these days, but it might just be good, long-lasting advice to “Not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Happy Birthday, Dr. David Livingstone!

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

LOOK ALIVE, SON

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Zig Ziglar was my friend and I miss him. He died last year on November 28, at the age of 86. Over the years, I had vociferously devoured his books and was especially fond of his motivational book, See You at the Top. I didn’t really become personal friends with Zig until about 1989, but his inspiration will go on influencing my life forever. He had become a top sales person in several organizations, and then turned his energies and efforts to becoming one of the greatest motivational speakers and trainers this culture has known.

Here I offer to you some of his best-known quotes. Each has the potential of changing your life:
      · “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.”
      · “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
      · “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”
      · “If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re scarce. If you go out to be a            friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”
      · “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.”
      · “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.”
      · “There has never been a statue erected to honor a critic.”
      · “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing-that’s why  we          recommend it daily.”    
      · “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”  
      · “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.”

One of the last things Zig Ziglar told me when we were together in Arizona was, “I’m not walking old, and I’m not talking old, and I’m not practicing up being dead.” I liked that, and latched on to it as one of my own personal attitudes of life. His emphasis was always on being fully alert and positive, and allowing the enthusiasm of life to be evident in every move he made and every attitude portrayed. “Let the whole world know that you are alive and happy to be there!”

Several months after that memorable meeting with Zig, I was in the African country of Cameroon, in a city called Mbingo. When I witnessed what was taking place in Mbingo, my mind went back to my last conversation with Zig. My humorous propensity toward life made me turn my head and chortle aloud, in spite of the solemnity of the setting.

After working in Africa for nearly thirty years I have come to honor and respect the cultural and behavioral differences throughout Africa. Many differences surround the occasion of death and the funerary traditions. Because of the animist influence on the African culture, many funerals are protracted over a week or more. The bereaved will take days off work to travel and to mourn. The African families are typically large, and the individuals customarily live on about a dollar a day.

The funerals and memorials often become extremely expensive for the involved family, because cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry may be purchased for the occasion and then consumed by the mourners. It takes a lot of time and money to prepare large amounts of food for the occasion. Usually, the endless stream of those paying their last respects pay for nothing else . . . they just pay their respects. But the mourners all expect to be fed and housed. That tends to make a bad financial situation even worse.

For family members, there is typically a funeral celebration with singing and dancing to honor the life of the deceased. Afterward, they hold a somber funeral procession and burial with intense displays of sorrow.

Almost no bodies are embalmed in West Africa. And, in contrast to India, rituals do not include the mandatory burning funeral pyres, known as the final samskar. In India, the five major elements of fire, water, earth, air, and space need to be satisfied by returning the body to the elements with minimal physical contact. So, after the cremation the ashes are poured into the sacred Ganges River.

While I was assessing the main hospital in Mbingo, Cameroon, the people began telling me about how unsafe and inconvenient the burial process could become, especially where they had no way to keep the corpse embalmed, cooled, or refrigerated in their morgues. It was mandatory that they move the body to the family home just as quickly as possible. Since there were no such things as ambulances or hearses, taxis were the only means of transporting the corpse. But taxi drivers charged three times as much to haul a dead body as a live passenger. Usually, as soon as the doctor at the hospital pronounced that there was no hope for the patient to live, the patient’s family would gather up his belongings and rush him out to a taxi and get him home before he gasped his last breath, thus saving two thirds of the cost of the taxi ride.

About the time my new friends were explaining all this to me, four men walked out the front entrance of the hospital. Two of the men had a third man between them with one arm draped over the shoulder and around the neck of each of the outside men. The fourth man was following behind carrying some personal belongings, and was trying to keep the hat from falling off the head of the middle man. Once outside, the fourth man darted ahead of the trio and hailed a taxi and was paying him to help get their “sick” friend home from the hospital. It was actually important to get their friend, who had already died, to his home without paying an amount three times higher than the fare charged for transporting a live passenger.

I’m sorry, and I don’t know why, but inside my head I could hear the articulate, southern voice of my dear friend Zig, still giving instructions, “I’m not walking old, and I’m not talking old, and I’m not practicing up being dead. Look alive, son, be fully alert and portray enthusiasm. Your very appearance will pay you great dividends and save you and your friends a lot of money! ”

I was able to stifle the laughter exploding inside me, but was unable to squelch the chortle. Zig Ziglar, we all knew you to be the greatest motivational speaker in our lifetime. But after my episode in Cameroon, Africa, I am ready to nominate you to the Cultural Economist’s Hall of Fame!

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

RELATIONAL TRUST

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

In 2008, I experienced an unusual privilege and opportunity on the international scene. I was nominated by USNORTHCOM, NORAD, and HOMELAND SECURTIY, and selected by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to travel to the Koffi Anan International Peacekeeping and Training Center in Accra, Ghana. “Your selection is reflective of your dedication to global humanitarian programs and your specific expertise, as recognized by your peers internationally.” I was to represent the U.S., in conjunction with other international organizations, on a select five-member international panel commissioned to meet for two weeks in Ghana to begin establishing protocol and structures that would assist world nations and African partners in achieving a more stable environment through security cooperation, information sharing, and information management. 

Our venue at the Peace Center was set up with two moderators at the front and the five panel members seated at individual desks forming a semi-circle facing the moderators. At desks behind the panel members were about twenty advisors who served as subject matter experts from around Africa and the world at large. Behind the advisors were many observers who had been invited to be part of the meetings.

Our task was to develop a multi-stage, comprehensive model that encompassed pre crisis; event; crisis declaration; response; and immediate, mid-term, and long-term response. Incorporated into each of the stages were to be addressed the seven forms of capital: human, social, natural, built, political, cultural, and financial, and their influences on the crisis situation.

Having worked with various groups before, I was fully expecting the normal process that takes place with every group as it comes together and works toward some kind of productivity:

          · Groping—“Why are we here . . . really?”
          · Griping—“Where’s my coffee? The computer on my desk is not working.”
          · Grasping—“I’m beginning to understand the expectations. This is going to be good”
          · Grouping—“I’m sensing a melding, bonding, and solidifying.”
          · Group action—“This is what we are going to do.”

But, this situation took me a little by surprise. Before we had much of a chance to move forward and accomplish anything, we hit a road bump . . . trust.

It was established that the model would place significant importance on information sharing (IS) and information management (IM) regarding cultural conflicts as well as pandemic disease outbreaks, epidemics, and health crises. An expectation was suggested that it was more important to share information than it was to protect it. That’s when the gloves came off. A number of the advisors, and even the observers from the African nations, weighed in on the discussion citing example after example where they had been deprived of the power of information in the past. A few even went back to colonial history, where “The colonial institutions had no interest or desire in fostering trust in the native populations, and misinformation was a frequent weapon used to keep the population in check.”

Another huge problem regarding trust dealt with the issue of corruption in certain areas throughout Africa. It was felt that the high levels of corruption reduced the types and amounts of information that could be shared (IS), and those conflicts often created crises themselves between the private and public sectors.

The moderators did a fine job of recognizing and discussing the issue of trust and getting us back on track. But, throughout the two weeks, the idea of trust kept sneaking its way back into the panel’s assignment. In the months since the meetings I attended at the Koffi Anan Peacekeeping Center, I have mulled around in my mind the idea of trust.

Steven Covey says that “Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” And even Abraham Lincoln said, “If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.”

Trust seems to be the reliance on the integrity of something to be true and sure. It becomes a confidence and assurance in the credence of a person or a situation. There also seems to be an element of risk or vulnerability that goes with the act of trusting, because the result of your trusting is out of your control. It is possible that you could be wrong. In a sense, we are paying the highest tribute to a person when we trust him or her to do right. In that regard, it may be an even higher compliment to be trusted than loved. So, trusting is difficult enough, but knowing whom to trust seems even harder. The sad thing is that trust takes years to build and seconds to shatter. Ernest Hemingway tried to keep it pretty simple by concluding, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

I can’t imagine that love could even exist at all without the element of trust. I agree that you run the risk of being deceived if you decide to trust too much. But, I believe you will probably live in torment if you don’t trust enough. Rick Warren, in his book The Purpose Driven Life, holds out the hope that a break in trust can be repaired: “Forgiveness must be immediate, whether or not a person asks for it. Trust must be rebuilt over time. Trust requires a track record.” It sounds to me that trusting in the restoration and healing of a broken trust would take another occurrence of trust itself!

Maybe it just works that way.

The panel, the advisers, and the observers finished the assignment given to us for the two weeks of meetings in Accra, Ghana, and the results were presented to the United Nations, the U.S. Pentagon, the World Health Organization, and other involved groups. I learned a lot about crisis management, possible pandemic outbreaks and epidemics, and global information management. But I also discovered a treasure trove of insights regarding the subject of trust. Perhaps, we should have just spent our time on the subject of Trust Management (TM).

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

POSTPONED DEBT

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

As a cultural economist, I am very curious about the phenomenon of postponed debt that I observe as I travel around the world. Cultural economics tries to deal with both sides of one coin: How do the people affect the economics of a culture? And: How do the economics of a culture affect the people? The issue of postponed debt has everything to do with economics and everything to do with culture . . . and also, it has everything to do with character.

In many of the Lesser Developed Countries (LDC) where I travel, if more money is needed to meet the economic demands and pay the bills, a very simple method is used. The dictator simply prints more currency. That method has an immediate impact on the value of the existing currency. With the same amount of goods in the market, but additional money in the system that was printed and spent, the prices for those remaining goods in the system go up. No one has to vote or agree for the price to go up, they just do. For example, if there were ten cherry pies and there were ten dollars in the money system, each cherry pie would cost you one dollar. But, if another ten dollars were to be created and put into the system, you would have twenty dollars chasing the ten cherry pies, and you would end up paying $2 to purchase your desired pie. The pie wasn’t really worth more, but the value of the money was worth less. 

In the U.S., our method is a bit different. When the Congress overspends, the Treasury is overdrawn. The Treasury creates and issues treasury bills and bonds and sells them at auction (IOUs), on the assumption that someone, some institution, or some foreign entity would rather have an interest-paying bond than a cherry pie. For the government to pay off the T-bills and bonds, it is necessary to either raise taxes on the citizens, sell off national assets, e.g. oil reserves, coal reserves, harbor and port rights, national forests, military armament, air space, etc., or allow the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank to start calling in the IOUs and paying them off. What Method would they use to pay off those T-bills and bonds? You guessed it . . . more newly created money!

A bond dealer would receive the T-bills or bonds and make the appropriate payment to the holder. The Federal Reserve Bank would receive the T-bill or bond and issue a check to the bond dealer who, in turn, would deposit that check into his bank account. The check, when deposited, would be credited by the Federal Reserve Bank to that bank’s required fractional reserves and that bank would then be entitled to make loans against that new reserve, or exchange it for cash. Why did the Federal Reserve Bank have the right to issue the check? Because it was backed up by the U.S. Treasury IOU that it just purchased!

In essence, what happens in the transaction is that the federal debt, a liability, is transformed into an asset by the U.S. Treasury signing a note, and the note becoming an asset of the Federal Reserve Bank. In other words, the debt of the government has been miraculously turned into spendable money. That is called monetizing the federal deficit! It gives an illusion and a false assurance that the government has a never ending source of money and store of wealth.

Those T-bills and bonds have an intended and expected postponement in being paid back. Some may be designed to not be paid back for up to thirty years. That postponed repayment defers the immediate impact on the monetary system. And when the debt instruments are paid back, they are nearly always paid back with money from more postponed debt, generated by the selling of more T-bills and bonds. The ultimate effect, however, is exactly the same as if the government did not issue the T-bills and bonds in the first place, but simply satisfied its debt with newly printed currency fresh from the presses.

The combination of postponement of the debt, and inflation, is the ultimate, subtle taxation. No one escapes the effects of inflation. When employing the method of inflation to settle overspending, there is no cost to the government for collecting taxes, no votes have to be taken for approval, and the government is the sole beneficiary. Those decisions come from the people who affect the economics of our culture. The activity ends up being a form of the old Ponzi scheme, where the early investor is hopefully repaid by the investment of a later investor. But I have never heard of any country in history whose traditional economic system could tolerate the monetizing of $26 trillion dollars into its system. Historically, a more likely result would include bankruptcy and civil conflict.

So, what is the psychological problem with the postponement of debt? How do the economics of a culture affect the individual people? William Shakespeare instructed us, "Defer no time; delays have dangerous ends." And, we might add that postponement is perhaps the deadliest form of denial, because the longer we wait, the more the sharp edge of urgency wears off. Our minds actually start telling us that the responsibility to keep the promise is not that important anyway. Something that can be done at any time will probably be done at no time. Postponement and the ignoring of accountability can become cultural suicide on the installment plan. Many of the leaders of foreign countries I visit really believe that the loans the U.S. has made to them should now just be forgiven and forgotten. They figured that they would repay “someday,” and then discovered that “someday” is not a day of the week.

I am sensing that the people of our culture have carefully observed our attitudes of looseness toward the integrity and responsibility regarding debt. The assumption seems to be that it makes no difference if we purchase homes we can’t afford, or lease cars without concern of the residual balance at the end of the contract. When one credit card is maxed out, just go get two more, stack up student loans depending on the political leaders to simply forgive the ballooned amounts before the next election, and make personal commitments and relational promises we have no intention of keeping. I think we have some serious problems that have resulted from a breakdown of integrity and accountability.

Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” And a culture can’t rationalize away what it has behaved itself into. The heart has reasons that reason does not always understand. We can be assured that where there is an intellectual disconnect from personal integrity, the reasoning and intellect will try to synthesize a substitute connection for justification. I think when it comes to integrity, in order to change the culture there has to be a change of heart. The economic practices of a culture will definitely affect the people. And the morals and integrity of the people involved will ultimately affect the economics of a culture.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com