A few lessons from high school physics and religious school could prevent financial stupidity!

When I lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1999, the famous financier, George Soros, mentioned something briefly about the Argentine peso being overvalued as it was pegged to the US dollar.

Soon after his phrase was pronounced, I saw Argentines flock to the banks to withdraw money.

I remember when Russia devalued in 1998 and Russians lost their money. A cousin of mine had been saving money to buy her own apartment and overnight she saw her money disintegrate into fewer rubles.

I never thought I’d feel that fear in the US. But the laws of physics do apply to our world on earth; they are not just formulas learned in high school. What goes up, must go down.

Another lesson from my earlier years was in religious school. Somewhere in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, the Pharaoh had a dream where he was standing on the banks of the Nile River and saw seven healthy cows of seven ears of a good corn and then he saw seven weak and skinny cows and seven ears of dry, ugly corn. Unable to understand this dream, the Pharaoh asked Joseph to interpret the dream. Joseph told him that God was sending the Pharaoh a message that there would be a seven year period of development and wealth, but the Pharaoh must save during the seven years of bliss because seven years of scarcity and hardship were soon to come. Some people could not believe that life would not always be so good and did not want to conserve money, water, food and resources during the good years to have something to live on in the bad years. Joseph stored food. When a famine struck the areas around Egypt, the country of Egypt was saved because it had saved food during the good years. Joseph’s wise choice to conserve saved peoples lives.

For all the political talk about being religious and going to Church, it seems like our President and other bible toting politicians did not pay attention during this vital lesson in the Book of Genesis: SAVE and don’t waste.

Though I am not religious and do not know the Old Testament super well, that is one lesson that stuck in my head: save for the rainy days.

Luckily, I grew up in a financially conservative immigrant family that did not believe in shopping sprees and credit card debt. We only spent what we had and saved for the future.

Our country needs to go back to those basic lessons in physics and balance. Whether one believes in the Old Testament or not doesn’t matter. The wisdom of the ages is simple: be prudent and responsible.

With the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah having just occurred, I am reminded even more of the need to take a new approach to life this year: balance and calm. This is the note with which I begin my new year.

-Susanna Zaraysky blogs for New America Media about the issues of global identity, global citizens, multilingualism, and the life of a child of immigrants. Her website is: www.susansword.com and her email is info@susansword.com.