We promises, yes I promise!’ said Gollum. ‘I will serve the master of the Precious. Good master, good Sméagol, gollum, gollum! — The Two Towers

My Take – Smeagol was an addict.  He was addicted to the safety and good feelings that the ring gave him in an unsafe world.  Rather than accept that the world was an unsafe place and live his life accordingly, he used the ring to give him a false sense of security and well-being.  He left the world of sunlight and fresh air to live at the bottom of a cavern to live in darkness rather than give it up.

In the same vein, our society is addicted to the security of “we’ll pay for it later”.  Whether it’s a college student putting herself hopelessly into debt to get that degree that she so desperately wants, or if it’s our federal government putting the grandkids into debt to pay for that just one more thing that we can’t live without, it doesn’t matter.  Our inability to not only live within our means, but also to have no real understanding of how deeply we are digging ourselves, is driving us to the edge of a cliff.

Eventually, Smeagol’s addiction to the ring destroyed him.  So too will our addiction to debt destroy us.  Someday the bills will come due.  Someday the pushers of easy money will cut us off.  When that day comes, we will learn what the term “rock bottom” means, because we will have to look ourselves in the mirror and figure out how we’re going to feed ourselves, secure the peace, and defend the country when the magic well of money has run dry.