There certainly are quite a few 0’s attached to this government bail out plan, but where are the details? This has not necessarily been at the forefront of the media this week but it’s definitely on my mind. From what I understand the money is coming from our tax dollars, everyone of us will be paying to correct the greed that contributed to this situation in the first place. You will notice I did not say cause, because there were quite a few factors that lead to our current financial maelstrom.
Last evening I was watching the Daily Show and Jon Stewart bought up some interesting points of this new proposal. The first point being there are not many details of how Paulson plans to utilize this tax payer money to solve the crisis. The Second point was this plan will be beyond the reach of the law. That is, it can not be subjected to judicial review. Am I the only one who has a problem with that statement? This is shaping up to sound like the largest theft in history. In fact an article in the San Francisco Chronicle’s article on the subject is titled “Bailout tests how much American public will tolerate theft.” The thing that vexes me most about our generation is our apathy. We are so consumed by video games, and American Idol that we can not be bothered by what is going on in our government. We can not be bothered by the fact that over the years our own government has spent lavishly on everything, courtesy of your tax dollars. We have doubled the national deficit in the past 8 years, and guess what that 7 Billion will soon add to it pushing us over 10 trillion dollars in debt. We as a generation need to wake up, voice our opinions and start being active. Today’s decisions will effect our generation years down the road. As Kevin at 20smoney.com points out: Thomas Jefferson once said: “Loading up the nation with debt and leaving it for the following generations to pay is morally irresponsible.”
Kevin wrote a piece about financial responsibility. The article asked why should he be financially prudent if the government, business and most citizens are not. I agree with him and his statement “Let me ask you this: If you bailout my neighbor who never should have bought the house to begin with, what incentive do I have to continue being responsible and dutifully paying my mortgage each month?” Kevin, I could not agree with you more! Over the past few months I’ve witnessed almost a dozen houses fall to foreclosure or being sold off. Why did these people, whom could not afford the home to begin with, make the purchase? Mostly due to creative financing and 0 down payments. The government now is considering a freeze on foreclosures that would “help” many people. In my opinion this goes along with the principle of debt elimination services; where it does not fix the source of the problem it just temporarily eliminates a persons debt. Where is our incentive to be responsible when our neighbors can [as Kevin points out] load up on boats, cars, and vacation packages only to be bailed out by the government.
Throughout these past few weeks I have had two strong urges. My first urge has been to write the government a letter explaining to them how I’ve been loaning myself money over the past 5 years, which I have now defaulted on. Tell them I need a 38 million dollar bail out to save myself from going under and see if it clears. I figure 38 million from 700 billion is like 35 cents to you and I, Ergo I might be able to pull it off. My second urge, especially after looking up the amount our deficit is to send the Fed a copy of Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Make Over. Just send a copy addressed to everyone important who seems to enjoy spending other peoples money. We will see if the Govt develops an emergency fund and starts a debt “snowball.”
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