Have you ever considered a world where the economy ceases to exist? This seems impossible, but for most of my life it was reality. 

When I was four years old, my mom and I moved in with my grandparents, members of a religious doomsday cult. To prevent members from leaving, many cults will engage in financial thwarting – essentially, a tax is imposed on each cult member to prevent them from becoming financially stable enough to leave the cult. 

The tax imposed by my cult is 20% for those who were at physical locations. While I don’t know the finances of my grandfather, a chapter leader to us, I am unaware if he paid that tax since he moved to Connecticut with my grandmother in the late 1980s. At nine years old I started managing my mothers finances, however it was difficult because even in her 30s, she and my grandmother were forced to give all their income to my grandfather. 

Around 2012, my grandparents filed for bankruptcy because they were $80,000 in credit card debt. The cult believes that the United States economy is the worst in the world and money has no value. As a result, my grandfather only made minimum payments resulting in exorbitant interest payments. As veterans, my grandparents could have purchased a home when the housing market was cheaper with a VA loan. However, they believe that owning a home is a waste of money with their common complaint being, “If something breaks you have to fix it.” Knowing they would have saved money had they purchased the house instead, my heart breaks for them and others in cults who had their mind altered, forcing them into poverty and debt.