I look around and see all the problems that are facing our nation today, and it is surprisingly evident that we no longer have a nation that takes personal responsibility for anything we do.
You can start at looking at personal behavior. There was a time where ADHD was just defined as a child with a stubborn streak, that... if the proper discipline and structure was applied would turn out just fine. Now... it is a disease that needs drugs. "Oh... he is just like that... " and pop more drugs. Terets Syndrome? Just a kid who never got disciplined when he said outrageous things, and some doctor just came up with some drugs that seemed to control the odd behavior. I personal knew a kid that had this, and after one episode in which he cussed out another friend very loudly in his face, was soundly punched in the stomach. He never did it again. We like to blame everything on everyone else... and treat it with drugs, diet, or... just live with it, instead of taking responsibility for our actions and being corrected.
Lets take the financial mess we are in. We have people out there who are going into foreclosure. They insist that they are the victims... they didn't understand what they were doing. I am sorry, but if you don't understand it, why did you do it? And now... why is it my fault? If you can't afford a mortgage, you shouldn't get one. And if you can't keep up with your payments, you need to live with the consequences.
Just like those people who murder someone, then claim they were temporarily insane. True... some things that we come up against seem to overwhelm us, but if you really can't control that, and start hurting people? Why should you get away with it?
One thing our founding fathers really understood very well... With Freedom comes responsibility. Just because we have the freedom to do something, we have the responsibility to do the right thing, and the obligation to take the punishment if we make the wrong choice.
Our government has been making a lot of wrong choices lately. They encouraged banks to give loans to people who didn't deserve them. Then a quasi-government agency wanted to make itself continue to look good, so bought bad loans for real cheap, to give the impression that they were in a period of sustained growth. People got rich, and then when the house of cards was ready to fall, the government plays the hero and bails them out.
Down this path, we will face a lot of hardships. The government is attempting to bail out our whole financial system. So far they claim to need 700 billion dollars. That is almost $3,000 dollars per man, woman, and child in the United States. I dunno about you, but I can't afford that. Hard times may come, but we need to let these institutions take the hits. Investment banks, insurance companies, savings and loans... they have fallen in the past without killing our economy. The government bails out companies that use poor business practices, and the result we get are bad businesses that continue to exist, and no longer have responsibility.
My challenge to you... when you screw up, take responsibility for it. Don't pass the buck, don't find someone else to blame. It will make the world a better place. Sure... if the AIG does this it may lead to a bit of a hard time for some... but we will survive. And we will be stronger for it.
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3 comments:
If you dont bail them out you face the potential of the entire economay collapsing. The market was rumored to be 500 trades away from a total meltdown the other day. They were projecting a 25%-40% drop in the market in the first few hours.
IF this had happened I assure you it would cost you FAR more then $3,000.
Ill take my small company as an example. We currently have consulting contracts with several hundred non profits-representing several million dollars in fees. I employ around 30 or so people and an additional 10 or so temporary folks.
Had the market halved in a day-had there been a true panic I would have immediatly faced dozens of phone calls from clients all worried about executing thier contracts. Some would have continued, many would have canceled.
After a day of internal carnage Id have sat down with my brother, caculated our losses and then made the hard choices. Cancel the temp contracts? lay off 2, 5 10 staff people? Cancel the lease for the new production equipment?
The ripple effect begins..before you know it my new equipment salesperson gets a call saying I cancel (he loses $5,000 in commission) I lay off people, i cancel temp contracts...all impacting the economy.
The bailout is NOT about saving wallstreet, its NOT about helping the dumb bastards who took bad loans, its about keeping our economy alive,avoiding a panic, a rush on the markets.
How we got here and how we keep from getting here again are important questions. But the fact is the markets were unregulated, bad loans were made, credit was extended, the economy is totally intermingled and codependent banks/insurance companies/hard good manufacturers/housing etc etc. All totally dependent on each other-let it collapse and youll be wishing all you had to pay was $3,000.
Id happily write a check for $25,000 today if I felt it would stave off a market collapse.
Gotta look bigger picture, gotta place ideology on the shelf-solve the current problem, reintroduce ideology and prevent it from happning again
I am not saying that it won't hurt. But we are going down the WRONG path. We are handing our lives, and our whole financial system to corrupt and inept politians.
Did you hear today? Paulson wants to include student loans and credit card to his bailout plan. We are talking about taking our entire debt system and nationalizing it. This will end market freedom.
In the long run, this will be much more harmful then even a 1930's style depression. Government control of our economy, which we have been headed towards for quite awhile will only result in a complete end of ALL our freedom.
And one other thing. These market predictions were made by people filled with doom and gloom. I am sorry, but I don't buy into the huge doom and gloom sayers who believed that we were on tbe brink of a total collapse.
That would basicly mean that our WHOLE market system is based completely on Wall Street traders being confident in the market. If we truely are that far gone... then well, we will collapse sooner or later. And the later it happens, the worse it will be.
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