{ 2008 09 19 }

America: The Land Where It Doesn’t Pay To Be Financially Responsible

By Kevin
Featured, Lifestyle, Politics, Real Estate

Today, I’m fed up. I’m fed up with our government and our fiscal policy. We now officially live in a country where it doesn’t pay to be personal and financially responsible. We have learned that it is acceptable to be completely irresponsible because our huge government will simply bail you out.

“Who cares how much it costs! Future generations will figure out how to pay for everything. I’m simply going to blame this on the other party and print more money to make this appear to be better all so that I will get elected this November.” – the typical American politician

The combination of verbal diarrhea coming from individuals like Nancy Pelosi and the actions of our government officials makes me want to vomit.

I hate to tell you this but perhaps we should trash all of the financially responsible ideas I have written about and we have discussed on this blog since we launched in April of this year. Perhaps, spending less than you earn and putting money away responsibly each month is not the right course of action. Perhaps, you should just invest your money in stuff by spending every dime you have and borrowing whatever money you need. Don’t worry if you might not be able to pay it off down the road. Why? Because we will continue to vote in elected officials who will tax the responsible to pay for the irresponsible.

Home Ownership

We can probably expect some sort of bailout for people who are having trouble paying their mortgage (somewhat likely under Mccain, highly likely under Obama). 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? Why should I continue to be smart with my money while my neighbor buys two houses, a boat, three jetskiis and a new car? What a joke.

For all of you who blame our housing and financial crisis on “predatory” lending, here is what I have to say to you: Blaming the banks for lending you money is like blaming a crack dealer for your addiction to crack; blaming the government for not stopping the banks from lending you money is like blaming the police for not preventing the crack dealer from selling you crack. Again, personal responsibility is a thing of the past.

Entitlement

John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – Ask what you can do for your country.” Today, this theme is non-existant. We live in a nation where everyone feels they are entitled to more and they want the government to give it to them. If it means taking it from someone who earned it, so be it.

Why do we feel that it is acceptable to take more and more from the rich and give to those who haven’t earned it? Do you know that just about all rich people in America today are self-made? They didn’t inherit the money, they worked hard and earned it! Of course, those with money should perhaps shoulder more of the burden to fund our government; however, when funding a government to serve the people becomes more focused on wealth redistribution, this is when it becomes wrong.

I am truly demoralized with the political landscape and culture of our country. I begin to question why I work so hard for a future of financial freedom for myself and my family. I am not rich, and I don’t really care if I get rich, however, I do desire financial freedom and the ability to take care of my family, put my kids through college and have enough flexibility in my life to spend a great deal of time with them. I also desire to better our nation in many ways, especially fiscally, so that my future kids inherit a great country. I fear this will not be the case as we continue to push off our debts and responsibilities to future generations in the name of short-term stock prices and short-term economic growth. Are the jobs numbers six months ago more important than the fiscal health of America 50 years from now?

Thomas Jefferson once said: “Loading up the nation with debt and leaving it for the following generations to pay is morally irresponsible. Excessive debt is a means by which governments oppress the people and waste their substance. No nation has a right to contract debt for periods longer than the majority contracting it can expect to live.”

Amen to that.

Conclusion

To conclude, I must say that what’s done is done. AIG, Freddie, Fannie and others are bailed out by our government. There’s no going back. However, how do we move forward? The number one issue moving forward should be to prevent any single institution from getting too big to fail. In the future, the Wall St. banks should be left to die if their actions result in them going under. The executives, shareholders and employees will feel the pain. The tax payer should not. In the future, when an individual takes out a huge mortgage and can’t pay it, they should lose their home and the bank should lose their money. The tax payer shouldn’t lose anything. Here’s an idea: let’s get back to the idea that you should buy a home you can afford and not anything more. If you can’t afford a home, rent and save money.

Everyone wants to blame somebody. It’s the bank’s lending policies that caused this. No, it’s the short sellers. No, it’s the CEOs because they make too much money. Wait, I got it. It’s the Bush Administration. They screwed everything up. Or maybe it’s everybody’s fault? Maybe it’s our culture obsessed with debt and bigger houses. Maybe it’s our covetous attitude that says we deserve more even if we haven’t earned it.

Ok, I’m done. Not because I’ve run out of things to say, but because if I go any further, I might throw this computer monitor across the room. Enough has been said. Have a good weekend.

Fun Quotes

To provide you with a good laugh or cry this weekend, I wish to leave you with a few quotes from some extremely impressive Americans:

On Sarah Palin, Lindsay Lohan recently said “In the words of Pamela Anderson, ‘She can suck it.’” – Nice one Lindsay. If I ever run for office, remind me to look into Lindsay Lohan as my potential campaign manager.

On America and the National Anthem, Josh Howard was caught saying, “Start-Spangled Banner is going on right now, I don’t celebrate that [bleep] becase I’m black. God [bleep] national anthem.” The clip then ends with Howard or Howard’s buddy saying “Obama ‘08″. I’m sure Obama is proud.

Popularity: 35% [?]