In the grand carnival of politics, there are three classic lies, dressed up and trotted out, regardless of party affiliation, platform, or ideology. It doesn’t matter if you’re tuning in to a cable news shouting match, a debate stage, or the impassioned rants of an internet conspiracy theorist—you’ll hear some variation of these same three fables: Rich people are to blame for your struggles. Poor people are to blame for your struggles. And foreigners, well, they’re definitely to blame for your struggles.
You’ve heard them all before. The first one tells us the wealthy, those stock-market-diving, yacht-riding elites, are sitting in their palatial mansions counting their gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, purposely pushing you down the economic ladder. The second one flips the script, where the poor are somehow sucking the life force out of the middle class, demanding handouts while sipping their iced lattes. And then there’s the foreign menace, that perennial political favorite, creeping across borders, stealing jobs, driving up crime, and—wait for it—eating pets. If it’s not one, it’s the other, and if it’s not the other, it’s all three wrapped up in a perfectly gift-wrapped package of blame, sent straight to your doorstep by the politician who swears he’s just looking out for you.
Let’s call it what it is: These are all lies. Not half-truths, not exaggerations, just good old-fashioned, brass-bell-ringing lies. The truth, with some exceptions, is a little less fun and a lot more complicated. The reason most people are struggling isn’t because of some grand conspiracy concocted by billionaires, the unemployed, or people who immigrated here. No, the reason people are struggling is because they’re living in a borrowed kingdom. And they’re paying for it with interest.
Let me explain. The modern American lifestyle—the house, the car, the vacations, the 12 types of subscription services you don’t even remember signing up for—it’s not free. In fact, for most people, it’s not even within reach without borrowing against the future. That’s why every month, an astonishing percentage of the average household’s income gets eaten up by interest payments. Mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, you name it. And guess who’s getting rich off that? Banks, mostly. But not in the “ha-ha, we control the world” way politicians like to frame it. They’re not sneaking into your house at night and taking your cash; you handed it over the second you signed on that dotted line for your new kitchen renovation or that shiny SUV.
Consider this: The average American household shells out somewhere between 15% to 20% of its monthly income just on interest payments. That’s not for the stuff itself, mind you—that’s just for the privilege of financing it. In dollar terms, we’re talking about $1,000 or more a month. Annually, that’s upwards of $12,000. Imagine, twelve grand just to stay afloat, just to stay in the game of your kingdom. And it’s not because a poor guy down the street or a foreigner sneaking in at night is messing with your finances. It’s because you’re trying to live a life that requires debt as a necessity.
And here’s where it gets interesting: Any time a politician tells you some version of those three lies—when they say it’s the rich, the poor, or the foreigner who’s to blame for your pain—you can bet there’s a con job somewhere in the works. They’re distracting you from this ugly truth: The system is built on a foundation of borrowing, and that’s the real scam. Rich people aren’t the ones forcing you to refinance your life every time you get a new iPhone. Poor people aren’t the ones making you max out your credit cards. Foreigners aren’t somehow conspiring to raise your mortgage interest rate. Nope, you’re doing that all by yourself, with a little help from an economic structure that thrives on turning every piece of your life into something you owe more on every month.
When you hear these classic political lies—about crime waves driven by immigrants or welfare queens eating taxpayer money like a buffet, just know that it’s all part of the same old distraction game. They’re getting you angry at a phantom so you don’t get angry at the fact that you’re paying interest to live in your own house.
So the next time a politician rolls out one of these three lies, maybe it’s time to get suspicious. If you hear someone say, “It’s the rich!” or “It’s the poor!” or “It’s the foreigners!”—what they’re really saying is, “Look over there while we continue to convince you that paying $12,000 a year in interest is somehow just part of the American Dream.” And the real kicker? You’ll probably vote for them anyway. Because let’s face it: They know how to sell a lie better than anyone.
