The events of the past week have been upsetting for Mr. Fixit and me. If not for the government bail-out, we could have lost what little we have in an annuity with AIG. Thank heavens, it seems to be safe for now. I hope it lasts until we can remove our money without having to pay penalties for early withdrawal.
How did this great country of ours come to this? Is it, as some say, a product of de-regulation? Is it corporate greed and corruption? Is it corruption in government? It has occurred to me that there is enough fault to go around, but I haven’t heard anyone say that perhaps we, your average citizens, have contributed to this mess. We live beyond our means; we drive expensive gas-guzzlers because everyone else has one; we give our children too much. Our credit card debt is astronomical. We think we can’t live in a house without all the modern conveniences. We have accepted some banker’s opinion that we can pay outrageous mortgage payments only to find that our carefully planned budgets do not allow for the countless unforeseen expenditures that crop up. We have failed to take responsibility by trusting in someone’s judgment other than our own, and now some of us are now losing our homes to foreclosures that have lead to this financial crisis.
Maybe we will learn from the events of last week, but being the cynic I am, I doubt it. I’m not one of those people could easily give up those luxuries that I have become accustomed to and dependent upon. It’s a little scary to think that in the future we may not have the choice of giving up a few luxuries for the sake of necessities. It could forced upon us by the financial mismanagement of the government and us, as individuals.
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Such irony! The people who 28 years ago told us that the government is not the solution to the problem it is the problem are now telling us that the government actually is the solution to the problems. The greedy, incompetent boobs that deregulated the savings and loan industry only to have it fail and be bailed out by the taxpayers are the same greedy, incompetent boobs that deregulated the energy industry and caused the fall of Enron and Worldcom. And now they've done it again. Some of them are still saying that lower taxes for the rich and the corporations will boost the econnomy. Why are Americans not rioting in the street over this? We may just put those same people back in office in a few weeks. I think we have become a nation of greedy, incompetent boobs.
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