For 200 years, America has been the land of opportunity. Immigrants from around the world have flocked to this great nation to make a better life for themselves. Here a person could find a job, work hard, and get ahead; he could own property, or start a business. The opportunities seemed endless.

But today, that is no longer the case. America may still look like a prosperous nation—new, shiny cars on the road, shops everywhere, new houses for sale—but behind the glittering facade of prosperity is an ugly reality: unsustainable debt.

America has become a nation hooked on debt, with little net wealth to show for itself. A recent survey released by Bankrate.com showed that less than one in four Americans have enough money in their savings account to cover at least six months of expenses. This is the amount recommended by most financial advisers to help you stay afloat if you were to lose your job, or be hit with a medical emergency or some other unexpected event. The report showed that 50 percent of the people surveyed had less than three months’ worth of savings and 27 percent had no savings at all.

Many interviewed said that after paying their debts and making house, car, and child care payments, there simply was no money left. They have so many debts to pay off that they can’t build a financial cushion to catch them should they lose their job or suffer an injury. If something like that were to happen, they would be forced to put expenses on the credit card, only making their situation worse.

Being in debt has become a way of life for most Americans. They have been conditioned to accept the fact that car payments are an unavoidable part of life; that low-interest, long-term house payments are normal. The total personal debt in America is currently $15.8 trillion when you add up all the mortgage, student loan and credit card debt. That averages out to more than $50,000 worth of debt for every man, woman and child. Debt is what’s fueling—but more importantly, now consuming—America. Already, some are warning that a second housing bubble is forming in some of the major cities in the U.S.

What few people realize is that America’s economic issues are really social issues at heart. They were not created, as some would say, by poor fiscal policies or a decade of war, though those factors certainly have their part to play. The problem is with the way Americans live. America has become a nation of consumers, where everyone is in a race to “keep up with the Joneses,” no matter the cost. Many feel they are entitled to the very best of everything. It’s this mentality that is motivating people to live way past their means.

When the economic crisis hit back in 2008, it happened because the housing bubble popped. Thousands upon thousands of bad mortgages were taken out by people who could not afford them, and when the banks came to collect, people realized they didn’t have the money to pay. Stricter lending laws certainly could have prevented a lot of what happened, but if people would have been more responsible in their financial decisions instead of stretching themselves beyond their means, the crisis never would have happened. And if banks would not have been so greedy, they would not have been lending to people who could not afford it. And if politicians had not been so corrupt, they would not have forced the banks to lend to minorities (who could not afford the loans) just to meet racially-defined lending quotas.

Humanity is innately selfish; it is part of our human nature. It is that selfishness—at the individual, corporate and national level—that has led to the economic despair in America. As Herbert W. Armstrong taught,

[T]here exist, overall, only two basic ways of life—two divergent philosophies. They travel in opposite directions. I state them very simply: One is the way of give—the other of get.More specifically, the one is the way of love, humility and of outgoing concern for others equal to self-concern. It is the way of cooperation, serving, helping, sharing; of consideration, patience and kindness. More important, it is also the way of obedience to, reliance on, and worship solely toward God. It is the God-centered way, of love toward God and love toward neighbor.The opposite is the self-centered way of vanity, lust and greed; of competition and strife; of envy, jealousy and unconcern for the welfare of others.

Mankind only knows the way of get. That is why the world is the way it is. And it’s not until that nature is changed—until man is taught a new and better way—that America’s, and the world’s, economic troubles will be solved. Soon that nature will be changed. At Christ’s Second Coming, man will finally learn the right way to live. Only then will humanity as a whole experience real abundance and financial prosperity.

To learn how you individually can have financial prosperity in your life today, be sure to read Solve Your Money Troubles!